
Class J_B £q 5 
Book . 6£7. 



an * -^; /f1LZ - 

CONCERNING THE 

NATURE, END, AND PRACTICABILITY 

OF A COURSE OF 

PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION; 

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED A 



BY PAll btvOWN. 



Luke Sth c. 44*A t>. — " For of thorns men do not gather %s- 
nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes." 



WASHINGTON CITY 



SA ' PRINTED FOR THK AUTHOR, 



By J. GMm*, Jr. 9th Street, 

188®. 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, to wit: 

|*********^ BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty- 
*. * J ". ?'. * second day of May in the year of oar Lord one thoii- 
*********** ^^ e ight hundred and twenty-two, and of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States of America*, the forty-sixth ; Paul 
Brown, of the said District, hath deposited in the office of the Clerk 
of the District Court for the District of Columbia, the title of a 
book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor in the words follow- 
ing, to wit : "An inquiry concerning the nature, end, and practi- 
cability of a course of philosophical education :" To which is sub- 
joined a moral catechism. By Paul Brown. 

" For of thorns men do not gather figs ; nor of a bramble bush 
gather they grapes. '''—Luke 6th c. 44/7* v. 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, 
entitled " An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing 
£he copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and propr. 
5DI such copies during the times therein mentioned,"" and also to the 
act, entitled « c An Act supplementary to an act, entitled wt An Act 
for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, 
charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies dur- 
ing the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits there- 
of to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and 
other prints. 

IN TESTIMONY WHE'lEOF, I have hereunto set 
my hand, and affixed \)i? public seal of my office, the 
day and year aforesaid. 

EDMUND I. LEE, 

Clerk of the District Court for the District of Columbia 



uS. 



CONTENTS. 
PART L 

Page, 
Of Education in general, 1 

CHAP 1. Of the original and use of the word 

Education, ------ 1 

CHAP. 2. Division of the subject, - - 9 

CHAP. 3. Of a contrast of Education with a 

p ivation of it, ----- 29 

CHAP. 4 Of instituted mechanical means of 

Education, - SS 

PART II. 

Of Abuses and Delects in Education, - - 38 
CHAP. 1. Of abuses and defects of Education in 

respect to morals, - 38 

CHAP. 2 Of P ejudice, - 50 

CHAP 3. Of Example, - - - - 60 
CHAP. 4. Of remissness in the impression and 

inculcation of principles, - - - 72 

part in. 

Of the remedies for the abuses and defects of 
Education, - 89 

CHA P I. Of circumspection on the incipient pro- 
gression of the understanding, - - 89 

CHA*. LI Of th e manage ry if the imitative fa- 

cxfty, - - - ' - - - 114 

CHAP. III. Of the reversion of habits, - - 124 

CHAP, 4* Of improvement of Institutes, - 152 



IV 



PART IV. 



Draught of a practical scheme of Education, £86 

CHAP. 1. Of Gradation in steps and forms of 
instruction, applied to the different stages 

of life, 286 

CHAP 2. Education of infants, - 295 

CHAP 3. Education of youth, - - - 312 
CHAP 4. Education of people more advanced 

in life, - .... 324 

Appendix. A moral catechism, - - 365 



Y&HT I. 
OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL. 

CHAPTER I. 

Of the origin and use of the word Education. 

The Word Education is derived from the Latin 
word Educo, which signified to instruct and train. Its 
immediate formation is out of the verb educate, which 
is expressive of the Latin verb educo, and signifies the 
same thing. This same word, Education, is also 
French ; that is, is used by the French for the same 
purpose as by the English. The idea of a particular 
action, is pre-esistent to that of a species of action, be- 
cause the latter requires an additional act of the mind, 
subsequent to the perception of that particular, where- 
by it ascendantly operates thereon, and modifies its 
particular ideas, from comparisons and references of 
which, it forms separate notions : therefore the names 
of species of actions, are derived from the verbs that 
signify the particular actions of which those species 
are. The Greeks by the word &Xa,mcS) expressed 
much of what is in the power of our verb educate* 
Almost every moral word has had, primitively, a me- 
chanical s.ense, from which it has been transferred to 
its moral use, by reason of analogy or a habit of orato- 
rical allusion. And this is the case with this tribe of 
1 



2 



words I am speaking of. The ideas of planting and 
nourishing were anterior to that of instilling know- 
ledge and persuasions of mind. This word has been 
used to some variety of signification ; yet is less per- 
plexedly ambiguous than many other moral words are 
by arbitrary use. It was formerly understood to sig- 
nify the bringing up of children ; and afterwards, the 
art of bringing up children: while, in the circle of 
philosophical propriety, it signified the training of 
young persons by methodical exercises, to certain in- 
vestments of their intellective and moral capacities, 
separate from, and over and above, what the progress 
of nature itself independently of any intentional di- 
rection, would carry them to, in the same time. The 
word is sometimes, now, in vulgar converse, employed 
to denote discriminately that part of education wfiich 
ig drawn from seminaries, whether common schools, 
academies, or universities. Thus, one is said to have 
an ordinary education, a liberal education, a public 
education, or, but a common education . and in a 
more partial appropriation it is frequently even con- 
fined to the privileges of college acquirements; as 
when of a candidate for an influential post, is said he 
has no education. It seems, in frequent use, to mean 
merely an extensive knowledge of the ways of the 
world, joined with the fashionable or fine accomplish- 
ments, such as decorous moving, — elegant speaking or 
writing, dancing, &c. which set a man off in the view of 
the croud : as who should say, he is a prudent, up- 
right, and intelligent man, but has no education ? 
And there is scarce any remark much more common 
in tattling circles than that such an one has a fine edu- 
cation, but he is a very passionate man, and addicted 
to gaming, to drunkenness, to extortion. Moreover, 
common observation evinces that in the general accep- 
tation of the word, as it is used among the commonal- 
ty, the idea of moral improvement does not participate 



in the least. It now properly stands, (in its philoso- 
phical use) for " that series of operations by which the 
developement and cultivation of the faculties and af- 
fections of mankind are carried on and fashioned, be- 
tween earliest infancy and the period when they are 
considered qualified to take part in active life." 

The idea which I shall 'endeavour to uniformly de- 
note by this word in the progress of the following dis- 
course, is this, viz. a superhuiuction of knowledge, and 
of habit to the capacities of percipient beings: or in 
other words, the superinduction of science and art* 
For whether we form opinions, or add absolute know- 
ledge and certainty, there is still a superinduction of 
light, and real knowledge, in those views the mind has 
of the relations of the ideas it compares together as 
proofs whether probable or demonstrative; and all 
art is but aptness and facility either in thinking or 
moving, acquired by repetition and custom. Whether 
men instruct themselves, by forming opinions and ac- 
cumulating knowledge in their own minds, by their 
own independent voluntary exertions; or inform the 
minds of others; it is all the same sort of thing, and 
fit to be denoted by the same general sign. 

For whether I form habits and ideas in my own 
mind or in another's, it is still but education : it is a 
voluntary teaching and learning of something: and all 
this too, whether they be mankind or beings of any 
other species of reasoning animals that from observa- 
tion, experience, or else either from some hereditary 
or traditionary impressions of particular propensities 
or principles, form in themselves or others certain ha- 
bits of thinking or muscular moving. Many deny that 
brutes possess the power of reasoning. 

Notwithstanding, numerous instances of deliberate 
trains of motions and other signs observable in several 
quadrupeds and birds, indicative of a comparison or 
balancing of what they inwardly feel or perceive, ap- 



4 



proximating to the security of good and the avoidance 
of evil, all indubitably analogous to what in ourselves 
is consecutive to reasoning, prove almost to a demon- 
stration that they do possess that faculty ; which yet I 
am far from supposing them capable of using about 
general orabstract ideas, of which in fact 1 deem them 
not susceptible ; abstraction seeming to be the settled 
boundary between man and all other species of ani- 
mals, as perception is supposed to be that which di- 
vides the animal from the vegetable kingdom : since 
we can trace no signs of their separating their ideas 
from the connections of particular existence, and foim- 
ing representatives of variously situated things, by ex- 
clusive consideration of a common property. Their 
reasoning, therefore is always about particulars: 
hence, of those animals who construct means of secu- 
rity or shelter, each species usually builds its habita- 
tions in one form, and of one sort of materials ; yet 
there are those who maintain that all the sublimest ar- 
tifices of brutes, are carried on by a blind unconscious 
impulse proceeding from their internal conformation, 
whereby desire and aversion act in them without the 
perceptions of good and evil in those things to or from 
which they propel them, and of the tendency of their 
movement to compass the one or avoid the other. 
Some one will ask, what induces the infant bee, in its 
first flight, to seek the honied flower r In reply to 
which, I would ask, what makes the human infant 
seek the breast whence it draws its sustenance? 
Both are led by perception of pleasing sensations ex- 
cited by those objects. The inexperienced is capable 
of no better reasoning than this ; to pursue that which 
appears the source of good, — the greatest good they 
can conceive. But it is well known, brutes come into 
the world nearer maturity than the human species. 
The lives of many of them are short ; they have but 
little progress to make, to arrive at all the improve* 



5 



merit they are capable of. The insect tribes, in parti- 
cular, have but a momentary advance (as it were) in 
increase either of their capacity of body or of mind. 
It will be sufficient for all the purposes of this place 
to take notice of some instances of communicating the 
knowledge of expedients and signs, exemplified in se- 
veral birds ; since nothing is better known than that 
several sorts of animals do progress to some degree of 
proficiency as they advance in age ; that they have 
more experimental knowledge not only, but are more 
apt in their observance, and in the exercise of their se- 
veral faculties, when they are three years old than 
when one day old ; and daily observation as well as 
experiment teaches us that dogs, monkies, elephants, 
horses, cats, and the like, may, by discipline and cul- 
ture, be brought to acquire a variety of habits. Birds 
of passage make use of signs to communicate to their 
young their ideas of changing, and their desire to 
change, their place. The turkey and hen have an ar- 
tificial language of sounds though not what we call ar- 
ticulate, the significancy of which, is certainly trans* 
fused to the comprehension of their rising offspring 
by a constant practice that produces a habit of asso- 
ciating certain emotions and perceptions with those 
determinate sounds ; for they act in invariable consis- 
tency with such trains of impressions, and seem 
to be perfectly sensible of an approach of danger, by 
its being intimated to them by a particular sound made 
by the parent or leader of the flock. Other ideas also 
are regularly communicated amongst them. Birds of 
passage, as wild geese and others, that divide their 
lives between regions a thousand miles asunder, com- 
municate, by practice and habit, the expectation and 
desire of changing their situations at certain seasons. 
Parrots have learned articulation, and even verbal 
reasoning. Most of the larger animals we are ac- 
quainted with here, have artificial language. Artificial 

*i 



6 



language supposes desire to communicate ideas, 
thoughts, impressions of something felt or perceived ; 
and it also supposes habit; for without this, there 
would be no permanent connection between the sign 
and thing signified. So then brutes are capable of 
education, passively and actively, in the proportion of 
the extent of their capacities, and the number of their 
faculties. 

Education, I take then may be justly defined a su- 
perinduction of knowledge and habit to the capacities 
of percipient beings. For whether in this operation 
there is induced absolute knowledge either sensitive, 
demonstrative, or intuitive ; probable opinion ; aptness 
or facility in any mode of motion ; there is still in all 
this business, voluntary exertion, and (consecutively 
to such exertion) something added which existed not 
there before There is one objection which I am aware 
awaits this use of the word I have been defining, and 
that is, that according to my definition, Education 
may be either a good thing or a bad one : knowledge 
and habit being equally the one appropriable, the other 
attributable to maleficent and beneficent purposes. I 
answer, habits may be bad or good; but knowledge is not, 
cannot be bad (of itself); knowledge of evil and good 
being essential to virtue. Habit is called bad (I speak 
of moral good and evil in the actions of asocial agent) 
only as the voluntary action whereof it implies a qua- 
lity or relation, proceeds from bad motives or subserves 
a maleficent purpose And the superinduction of 
either the one or the other is bad no otherwise than as 
those divers modes which go to constitute this, are so, 
in reference to some paramount concern. A habit is 
reckoned a bad or a good habit as it is a habit of a bad 
or a good action. And this is the criterion of a good 
or bad Education; of right Education, or wrong, per- 
verted, abused, or misguided Education. Again ; 
every tiling in the world btcomes bad by being per- 



7 



verted and turned to bad uses : and thus knowledge, 
genius, health, strength, and all the pre-eminent ta- 
lents and privileges wherein men transcend brutes, 
may be made evils and sources of misery to our own 
and other species. And, if I may be permitted to 
speak so boldly, if mankind had never had any expe- 
rience at all of the malign effects of vicious habits, in 
destroying safety, health, quiet, &c. I know not how 
they would have come to fully comprehend the excel- 
lence of virtue. It may furthermore be said, that the 
essence of this definition simply implies the addition of 
something to a system, which it is capable of receiving. 
Let us see whether this addition of something compe- 
tible to the natural wants and aptitudes of a being, be 
an improvement of that system or not ; whether this 
be improving, ameliorating, helping a system towards 
its designed end or not. And, for this, it seems ra- 
tional to conclude that knowledge and facility are an 
improvement of an intelligent free agent Whereupon 
I say, in another view of the subject I don't know how 
to get rid of this definition on account of the following 
considerations : 

1. If man was endued with the capacity of know- 
ledge, with the design that he should acquire know- 
ledge, and with the power of beginning motion that he 
should act, it is evident that if he acquires knowledge 
by means of this capacity, and habit by means of a 
practical exertion of those powers of action he posses- 
ses, the acquisition of both the one and the other of 
these is an improvement of his system; inasmuch as it 
is the immediate accomplishment of designs apparent 
in his construction. 

2. The ultimate end of nature, in the construction 
of man, wherein he is invested with progressive pow- 
ers, seems to comprehend these two ideas, preserva- 
tion of existence, and ^consummation of enjoyment. 
Now, in the way to this end lie knowledge and habit : 



8 

and these are indispensable to its attainment. The 
dispansion of the natural powers of man, therefore,by 
the superinduction of these two properties, is improv- 
ing It is essential to a free agent to be susceptible of 
evil as well as good. Now, this susceptibility, in itself, 
is not a bad thing, any more than liberty, will, under- 
standing, and judgment, are such; it being necessary 
to the first of these, and originating to the others mat- 
ter of exercise. But the use (or rather the abuse) of 
our faculties, is that to which this epithet properly be- 
longs. 

3. Using the word in this latitude of sense, places 
it upon that bottom which gives all their signihcancy 
to those very common observations in the mouths of the 
populace, which keep up a distinction of the thing 
into good and bad, which being relative terms, I do 
not perfectly comprehend the meaning of good Edu* 
cation, unless there may be the reverse, or something 
which in one comparative view or other, passes for it. 
And, since any thing that is designed for common use, 
should be represented in a common way, it seemed to 
me that the dimensive term to the subject of a commu- 
nication intended for the benefit of all parts of a com- 
munity, ought to be used in the most general sense 
that term has been usually understood in, that the 
yulgar comprehending the elementary ideas upon 
which the rest depend, may be capable of applying it, 
to the designed end. A superinduction of knowledge 
and habit to the capacities of percipient beings, I call 
Education. And this I shall consider only in its ap- 
plication to the human species. 



CHAPTER II. 

Division of the Subject. 

Education, in this comprehensive sense of the word, 
I distinguish into adventitious arid systematical. Ad- 
ventitious Education is that wherein by an uncon- 
troulcd course of occurrences, light, and knowledge 
of things physical and moral, is naturally accumula- 
ted, and habits gradually formed, without any intent 
extension of the voluntary power to a regular catena- 
tion of instituted means to form these upon a studied 
plan ; and herein the creature seems, in general, pas- 
sive. When I call Education systematical, certain 
set of instituted means or causes is laid out and ap- 
plied to the special purpose of bringing about such an 
effect as the qualifying of the capacries of rationale 
with certain habits and views. This is a science and 
an art. Asa science it comprises the knowledge of 
the suitable means to the end ; as an art, the rules and 
measures of the use of them. This is a momentous 
project in social life ; and, properly, embraces the 
teaching of natural, moral, and i aticval philosophy ; 
that is to say, the regular training of the intellectual 
powers, the furnishing of knowledge and just views of 
physical existences ; the forming of just combinations 
of ideas of moral modes and relations ; forming habits 
of good moral actions whether of voluntary thinking 
or muscular motion; and the investiture of such valua- 
ble arts and trades as are respectively necessary or fit 
for the condition of each being included in the sphere 
of its designed operation The execution of this im- 

Sortant purpose, should take its rise in moulding the 
elicate minds of infants. The greatest and most in- 



10 



dispensable concernment of this purpose is with asso- 
ciation of ideas. Association of ideas influences all 
moral productions in the world. All that is consecu- 
tive to the act of willing, in the universal world, is emi- 
nently influenced if not altogether controuled, hy as- 
sociated ideas. Those associations which are formed 
in infancy, are more durable and invetet. 4 tely efficient 
than any other. The first step, then, in this business, 
is the forming and regulating of associate ideas in the 
tender minds of infants : the t second is to gradually 
unfold to their apprehensions, just views of natural re- 
alities, the third, to conduct the use of their organs of 
sound to proper articulation ; and the fourth is to form 
good habits of voluntary action conformably to the 
purposes of social virtue, under a controuling disci- 
pline through means of practical repetition which is 
the natural rise of all habit. This last should also 
include the incipient approximation to such associate 
mechanical movements as are connected with the de- 
signed or most proper occupation or art of livelihood, 
contemplated as a fixture of their future existence on 
the stage of action. Thus much is comprehended in 
what is to be done to infants. If we except the con- 
duct of rudimental articulation which is very rarely 
protracted beyond childhood, this same round is to be 
trodden in youth, in manhood, that is, in each succes- 
sive stage of the life and experience of the intellectual 
being, with an extension aua complication of each part 
of the process, according to the progressive amplifica- 
tion of the capacity by experience and use. For, 
whether we teach ourselves, or teach our fellow be- 
ings, in infancy, in youth, or in manhood, it is but to 
do either or each of these things upon a more or less 
extended scale, namely, to form right associations of 
ideas or perceptions, winch are to govern the prevail- 
ing motives of the voluntary power ; to store the mind 
with knowledge and proofs ; to conduct the organs of 



11 



speech to the habit of forming proper sounds to com- 
municate ideas to others ; to form habits of good ac- 
tions, to wit, such habits of associate movements in the 
muscular organs as agree with, and are congenially 
applicative of, good purposes, or in other words, purpo- 
ses of social virtue, which are no other than purposes 
of an equitable diffusion of the enjoyment of existence ; 
and to form habits of particular mechanical move- 
ments which are to serve as means of life and com- 
fort. All which being done, Education is completed : 
which yet seldom is finished in the life of man; every 
day being sufficient to bring forth some new know- 
ledge ; and men being beset with such a variety of 
temptations, the multitude going into such a maze of 
erroneous mo x , ements, are always susceptive to make 
or amend some habit. For I am inclined to think it 
is possible for a man to learn something every day he 
lives. Yet this I would not confine to those different 
perceptions of external things which are perpetually 
varying around him, according to the seasons, change 
of place, climate, &c. but I am persuaded the new asso- 
ciations of ideas, and new trains of thought, which 
may take their rise from the successive transfigura- 
tions of his environing scene of sensation, wherewith 
he is mechanically affected, besides being in them- 
selves subjects of actual speculative knowledge, may 
evince physical and moral truths of a more or less ge- 
neral and important nature, whereon he may frame 
new observations, of practical benefit to himself and 
others. " With the ancient is wisdom, and with 
length of days, understanding." Old age has a pre- 
eminent claim to proficiency in science and art, by 
the exclusive advantage of long experience. Experi- 
ment is a test which substantiates as many axioms in 
some branches of lore, as demonstration does in 
others. Those in which it has the more conspicuous 
prevalence, and is most usually indispensable, are mo- 



12 



rality, medicine and chymistry. Handicraft, mechan- 
ics, medicine, and chymistry, owe their intire struc- 
ture to experiment. Several races of inferior animals 
have made considerable advance in arts of sustenance 
and defence, which certainly has not been so much by 
the aid of the operations of reflection, as by experi- 
ment. This is not saying that grammar and music, 
which are almost entirely made up of experienced 
concurrences either of general customs, or events 
which are the effects following certain relations of 
sounds, do not depend as much on experiment as al- 
most any other. Now young folks have experience 
as well as old : but they have not so long experience. 
Not so long a course of repetition of perceptions, 
which substantiates the validity of this sort of know- 
ledge. An effect may fail, after one or two instances: 
but after a great number of returns of the same ap- 
pearance upon the same conflux of circumstances, we 
feel sure that such is the invariable effect of such a 
cause, and that the same thing will always operate in 
the like way. And because old people have had the 
opportunity of observing more instances of this kind, 
and have seen some things through a longer course of 
repetitious operations, they are said to possess greater 
treasures of wisdom than the young. But to return : 
since the drift of Education proximately terminates in 
things to be known and things to be done, (for where 
we have not certain knowledge of the existence of 
things without and separate from the understanding, 
we have yet certain knowledge of a certain degree of 

{probability or improbability thereof, and certain know- 
edge that it is prudent to conduct in a certain man- 
ner in consequence of it;) since in furnishing the 
mind with these materials of action, we can do no- 
thing more than either to introduce ideas or appear- 
ances of things into it, or, when they are there, so to 
connect two or more of them together as to make their 



13 



re concurrence or consecution incident, or else to 
make one person capable of transfusing the experi- 
ence of his awn mind info that of another, which af- 
fords great furtherance to men's improvement in 
knowledge; and since to accomplish men for doing 
whit is fit by them to be done, is but, by connecting 
the motions of two or more sets of fibres or muscles, 
setting them into a course of repetition and continu- 
ing that repetition, to establish habits of their associate 
motions catenated to volition; of which, it being 
something conspicuously different, still, to establish 
those general movements which implying the idea of 
sympathy, form what is called moral character, from 
establishing those particular knacks called urts and 
trades ; it is evident that the whole compass of human 
Education, may be divided into these five parts or 
processes, viz : 

J. Direction and establishment of associations be- 
tween ideas, whereby we make some apt to accompany 
or succeed each other rather than others. I mention 
this first in order, because over the first ideas infants 
receive, we have no controul : so that before we can 
dictate their impressions or stock their minds with, 
ideas of our own choice, they already have perceptions 
and notices of things, within their apprehensions, 
which being prone variously to combine by the inter- 
vention of pleasure or pain or some peculiar emotions, 
into very odd groups, call upon our circumspection to 
set those associations right. Thus, the idea of pain 
should be associated with that of the touch of burning 
matter in the relation of cause and effect, instead of 
pleasure, which attends the perception of light and 
a due degree of heat, although these may originate in 
the same substance at a proper distance ; the idea of 
misery, accompanied by emotion of horror, with that 
of disobedience to parents, in the same relation ;— until, 
by following a gradation of this sort of natural connec- 
S 




11 



tions, we come at length to associate the idea of the 
highest degree of enjoyment the creature is capable of 
comprehending, with that of gratitude. The relation 
of cause and effect is grounded in the natural consti- 
tution of things; being, properly, of the class called 
natural relation; and the association is unavoidable 
when the subjects of it are discerned. But all these 
processes are done promiscuously in youth and in 
manhood ; so that the times of perfecting each of these 
branches of human qualifications, are as various as the 
conditions of the individuals to be qualified. 

This is a delicate process ; and is not without its 
difficulties too ; for although by dint of a careful reflec- 
tion we can readily discover and rectify any anoma- 
lies that take place in our own trains of thought; yet 
in the supervision of others' we are fain to be guided 
altogether by the assumed representativeness of signs, 
which, in the case of infants, being indeterminate, and 
in some measure capricious, we must be often at a 
loss. This part cannot be too much studied. A right 
understanding of the nature of association, in the ab- 
stract, will do much towards qualifying one for the 
conducting of every part of Education. For, whether 
considered as influencing the movements of the vari- 
ous fibres in the system, or making its appearance in 
the modification of our bare perceptions in a metaphy- 
sical view, it is a principle upon which every part of 
the work more or less immediately depends. Associa- 
tions, in the human constitution, are of three kinds : 
1. Association of ideas one with another; 2. Associa- 
tion of ideas with other fibrous movements; and 
S. Association of other fibrous movements one with 
another. The first includes our speculative opinions 
and persuasions; the second our passions ; and the 
third our customary nervous and muscular motions. 
Of associations of ideas, there are three sorts: conti- 
guity, causation, and resemblance. The first of these 



15 



sorts is a connection of ideas of qualities co-existing 
in the same subject; of the ideas of objects perceived 
at the same time, or of events happening at the same 
place. The second represents the union of the ideas 
of effect and cause, one of which cannot make its ap- 
pearance without suggesting the other : and the idea 
of an j object considered as an effect, has always along 
with it, an idea [however indeterminate) of an object 
that is considered as its cause. The third is a connec- 
tion of like ideas, or of ideas that have a likeness or 
coincidence, in any of their parts : in which case, one 
naturally exciting the other, thence arises a concomi- 
tance. Of either one or the other of these sorts, all 
are yet distinguishable into general or implicit asso- 
ciations, and individual or definite associations. All 
our associations of ideas mainly resolve themselves 
into two kinds or allotments which are distinguished 
merely by the quantity of the ideas themselves, as 
they are general ideas or particular ones ; whence 
they may be termed general or implicit associations, 
and definite associations. Instances to exemplify 
these kinds, are observable in all parts of common life. 
Some implicit associations are derived from definite 
ones: that is, some associations being at first definite 
and particular, do afterwards, by continuance, and re* 
peated coalescence of analogous ideas, become general 
and implicit. Every association which is circumscri- 
bed to a particular person or place, or other object as 
an individual, is a definite association : as the associa- 
tion of the idea of superior excellence with the ap- 
pearance of one particular person, the association of 
the idea of innocence, or of deep wisdom, with that of 
a particular place ; of that of a certain tune with a par- 
ticular tree, field, or carriage, &c. Now in these in- 
stances, the person, the place, the tree, &c. are the 
principals ; and the others are the adjunctives : for 
we may observe that almost everv such combination 



16 



has two links, the primary, and the secondary or sub' 
ordinate ; and that whatever number of ideas is com- 
prised in each, the former usually constitutes that to 
which the latter is attributed as a quality, affection, in- 
cident, or accompaniment : and now it is sufficient to 
make any association implicit, that the principal is an 
abstract idea, even if the other part be & particular 
idea- That which being first produced to perception, 
fcuggests the other, or introduces it into the mind, and 
without vvhich it would not have been suggested and 
induced, may be called the principal; and this, the 
primary link in the connection. A tree, a carriage, 
a name, a place, a person, considered as individuals, 
are particular ideas. But, a man with a certain fashion 
oi clress, dialect, or gait ; a tree of certain species ; 
v s'ujpe or structure of a house ; a manner of walking ; 
^ tone ; a manner of speaking, are abstract ideas. Im- 
plicit associations, then, (by which I mean such as 
imptl a reference to other particular objects than that 
v-'mii in any present instance principally excites the 
understanding; with which particulars the adjunctive 
TmS an equal aptness to combine) may be furthermore 
distinguished into those wherein abstract ideas only 
are associated together, and those wherein particular 
ideas are associated with abstract ones. Subject to a 
correspondent subdivision are also definite associa- 
tions, that is, into associations of particulars with par- 
ticulars, and of particulars with generals ; the gene- 
ric distinction adhering to the principals, as they are 
respectively abstract or particular. If giving the first 
occasion to the entrance of an idea by way of sugges- 
tion, is that which defines the principal, it will be ea 
-y to distinguish associations by these measures : and 
if continuance and repetition cause definite associa- 
tions to grow into implicit Opes, it will be easy to see 
that they partake ot the nature of habit, and conse- 
quently, as such, are subject to the influence of inten- 



17 

lional direction. Some implicit associations are more 
general than others, as some ideas are more abstracted 
than others. Some examples of this kind of associa- 
tions, are what follow : 

1. Association of ideas of the same kind or sort : as 
the painful irritation of disagreeable or hurtful objects 
suggests and excites the painful ideas of disagreeable 
reflections ; all such as accompany the passions, anger, 
jealousy, sorrow, hatred, &c. This is when all sorts 
and varieties of pain spontaneously embody and com- 
bine together. 

2. Eminence in possessions, relatively called riches 3 
has a very extensive implicit association ; insomuch 
that the idea of all human excellence is frequently con- 
founded with it ; when it shall be thought that a man 
inferior to all others in respect to this incident, is in- 
ferior in intellect, and extremely wanting in know- 
ledge: and a man, on the other hand, vastly rich, 
shall be conceived as excelling in skill and fortitude, 
as he excels in possession. 

3. When with the circumstance of meeting persons 
of one's own country on the road (without personal dis- 
crimination,) is associated the idea of overbearing, 
arising from instances of hard usage from individuals, 
w« have an example of implicit associations. 

4 Association of the ideas of causes of the same ef- 
fect ; and ot those of effects of the same cause. 

There is a connection of handsome and pleasing 
countenance with the idea of benignant intention. 
This is by the way of intervention of the idea of plea- 
sure, common to both : as good intention is a cause of 
pleasure in originating such actions as bring happiness ; 
and also beauty is a cause of pleasure. But this is an 
association of the ideas of causes of the same effect. 
Here, the intervening idea, (which is pleasure ) be- 
comes the principal; which first occurring to the 
mind, suggests the other two in connection. 
*2 



18 



5. Association of the ideas of contempt and aver- 
sion, with the relation of certain words, phrases, modes 
of address from others, laughs, smiles, and jestful rail- 
lery. This circumstance, when these are directed to 
the subject's self in infancy, is a relation with which 
the association of the idea of contempt, has a pernici- 
ous tendency ; for it progresses to the perversion of 
judgment, and disorders his estimate of others actions 
and views. 

6. The sound of g associated with the figure f, and 
the sound of f associated to the figure g by their con- 
nection in train or rote : so that the subject as readily 
and confidently calls g by the name of f, or f by the 
name of g, as by the reverse. 

7. Sound of b associated with the figure, d, and also 
p, and vice versa, by resemblance both in the figures 
and the sounds, through dullness of discernment or per- 
ception, or both, and this either inherent and native, or 
from want of practice of those faculties on those sorts 
of objects, their energy being otherwise directed by 
babit. 

8. Sound of q associated with the figure b or d or p, 
and vice versa, by resemblance in the figures only, 
through dullness and want of habitual attention. 

9- The impression made by the voluntary soun- 
ding of certain characters in a particular way, that is, 
in associating certain names with them, is so influen- 
tial and strongly confirming that it bears down all 
other associations before it out of the memory, in con- 
nection with that particular perception of the figures 
of the characters, and by repetition increases the as- 
surance against them, and against the senses. A rare 
case. 

10. The names of letters more strongly and truly 
associated with the sounds of words made of them, 
"when spoken with natural and clear articulation, than 
with the sight of the letters themselves, for want of 



19 

practice of inspection, while more attention is exercised 
about sounds, and the imitative faculty practiced on 
them in the use of the organs of speech. 

11. Idea of the pain that follows experience of in* 
hospitality, apathy, and suppression of sympathy in 
others, associated with certain shapes of men's bodies, 
and their countenances and airs, originating in acci- 
dental concurrence of those things in real perceptions. 

12. Great and surprizing sounds easily get associa- 
ted in the minds of children, with the ideas of superior 
dignity of person, worthiness of notice, and power to 
command attention. These sounds being at first par- 
ticular, are afterwards abstracted ; and the association, 
which supervened upon a particular occasion, becomes 
general. The same is to be observed of any sound 
with which is connected the idea of aversion, or of 
spite. Let such a sound, entering the ears of a child 
from a particular person, accede to such a coalition ; 
and the same sound heard thirty years afterwards, 
from a different person, at a place a thousand miles 
distant from the first, shall suggest the like ideas. 

II. Furnishing the mind with real ideas and know- 
ledge. The first perceptions and knowledge infants 
get, anticipate our efficiency. For as soon as they 
come into the world, they are exposed to the different 
sensations of heat and cold ; and as soon as their eyes 
are open, they begin to perceive different colors as well 
as other simple ideas, and discerning one to be differ- 
ent from another, know that blue is not red, that black 
is not white, and that round is not square. This 
stage takes a very extensive circuit of applicatives ; 
comprehending whatsoever contributes to produce 
knowledge of every sort, not only, but all the variety 
of ideas and proofs, which are the materials out of 
which that knowledge is made ; and being the subject 
of the scientifical parts of natural, moral, and rational 
philosophy. For the knowledge of figures, characters* 



20 



signs, with all the instruments and materials of com- 
munication, and their relations and use, as well as of 
the fit methods of all arts, make no less a part of the 
scope of this process than that of the distinguishing 
properties of substances. Yet of what we can do to 
infants, this is the second step. For, after regulating 
what views they have, (which seem to be spontaueous,) 
the next thing in our course, is to enlarge their views, 
by presenting the natural subjects of real existence in 
such manner as to exhibit their true discriminations 
and proper habitudes. All the objects in the natural 
world, concur in the instrumentality of this part : and 
I imagine our fantastical ideas are but the shreds and 
clippings of our real ones, or at least that they are 
real ideas unnaturally put together. This is a part of 
education which cannot be finished so long as the uni- 
verse can afford a diversity of ideas reducible to a va- 
luable appropriation ; as that which contemplates the 
cultivation of active powers, and the advancement ot 
art, is not terminable while the species is susceptible 
of improvement. 

III. The conduct of the organs of speech to correct 
articulation of sonif rous signs. This includes in one 
design, both the modulation and choice of sounds, in 
the relation of signs of ideas. I separate this from all 
other muscular associations, and make it a separate 
branch of Education, for these three following rea- 
sons 

1. The power of articulating is a distinguishing ta- 
lent wherein we are privileged above all other ani- 
mals whereof we have any knowledge. Thus it has 
been called the gift of speech ; as if it were an en- 
dowment parallel with abstraction and recollection : 
and in fact it makes a prevailing part of the essential 
excellence of the species. 

2. This operation is done by organs adapted to this 
particular end of producing articulate sounds; and 



M 



some of the muscles employed in articulation, are used 
for little or nothing else, or at least are not so precise- 
ly fitted to any other purpose : whereby, it appears to 
bean art whereof nature seems to have fashioned the 
materials and measures to our hands. 

5. The exigency of our infant state, and the indis- 
pensable moment of the art to the enjoyment of socie- 
ty, make it necessary to attend to the inculcation of 
this, long before children are capable of any other me- 
chanical process. Writing, whereby we preserve the 
delineation of those figures we make the representa- 
tives of significant sounds, falls under the class of 
mechanic arts ; — to habituate the distinctive modifica- 
tions of which sounds, is the business of the part of 
Education we are now speaking of. And there is not 
another mechanical association whereof mankind is so 
early susceptible : wherein, we may or ought to re- 
mark, children require a clear and distinct idea of the 
sound to be made, to be in their minds, before such 
sound can be by them effected : for it is frivolous to ex- 
pect any thing like an imitation, without a pattern to 
imitate. Of such ideas children are admirably capa- 
ble. Furthermore, a propriety of orthoepy, is of great 
use towards intelligible communication ; since in many 
cases we might as well change a word, and substitute 
one of an intirely different meaningfrom that in which 
we would be understood, or one with no determinate 
meaning at all, as to change the sound of it; and an 
inattention to this thing, often introduces perplexity 
and obscurity into verbal intercourse. 

IV". Settling habits of those associate motions which 
conform to true measures of good and evil. This is 
moral Education, of which if men had duly considered 
the importance and true rise, I suppose that most of 
the moral evil which has incumbered all periods of 
human society with complicated miseries, would not 
have disgraced the annals of the species. The scope 



22 

of this, terminates wholly in moral character* The 
character of a social agent, comprises the ultimate 
concernment of this aim ; which takes into its account 
the idea of sympathy, subject to the influence of moral 
discernment. The associations here contemplated, 
are aptly founded in those of ideas And there is no 
plainer "consequence ; since the latter beget motives 
to the will : as the idea of happiness being associated 
with that of sailing, determines the will on the pursuit 
of that manner of spending time in preference to 
others ; that is, this connection makes the predominant 
desire to be this exclusive way of subsisting, rather 
than any other : and this determining of the will, be- 
ing the beginning of all moral action, and the same 
principle of preference causing its repetition, it is evi- 
dent muscular habits flow immediately from associate 
ideas. Therefore judicious culterers of so noble a soil 
as human nature, carefully look to this ground ; in- 
spect the abstrusest radiction of what they aim to 
rear; and carry their work, upon a natural scale, to 
its proper consolidation of character. These moral 
associations contain the following particulars; desire, 
Willi purpose, nerval and muscular organs, and mo- 
tion. These are to be trained into certain connections, 
partial or universal ; these connexions to be conform- 
ed to the purpose of advancing the greatest good of 
the species ; and lastly, these connexions to be made 
habitual: which fulfils the process of this part of the 
business of Education ; which yet we find never com- 
plete ; such is the nature of man ; such the imperfec- 
tion of all our advantages, we are perpetually liable to 
be secretly drawn off from the trace of casuistical rec- 
titude. 

V. The teaching and establishing of certain mecha- 
nical movements to he used for expedients to execute 
the ordinary purposes of life. The whole essence of 
these, consists in the apt consort of the motions of se- 



23 



veral muscular fibres used to act simultaneously or 
consecutively, and this catenated to voluntary think- 
ing and volition: but contains nothing of sympathy; 
it being a question that very little bears upon the 
finishing of a plough, or a watch, whether the maker 
be one who is scrupulous with regard to the feelings 
of others, or the grossest idolator or fanatic ; so that in 
the capacity of a mechanic he has sufficient incite- 
ments from the references of its influence, to excel in 
that workmanship. All this has nothing to do with 
the idea of sympathy and farther than, as an appen- 
dice of social life, it may be mediately influenced by 
it. Yet the endowing with these trades becomes air 
essential part of the practice of true morality ; and an 
important branch of Education. For it is the duty of 
every one who has children, or wards of whose desti- 
ny he has the controul, to qualify them with such ta- 
lents as will enable them to get the materials of sus- 
tenance without the intervention of charity or public 
taxation, on the one hand ; or of dishonorary resorts, 
which counterwork justice and revert or overbear the 
force of sympathy, on the other. And it is the duty 
of every young person likewise, whose condition makes 
him look to the application of his own powers for sub- 
sistence, to acquire the command of some one such 
usetul art or another, which is adapted to secure him 
a livelihood by honest ways. And both the one and 
the other of these, who neglects it, is guilty of the 
neglect of an important moral duty, and of a conspicu- 
ous part of moral Education ; although its morality 
lies altogether in the consideration of instrumentality. 
This relation of subsidiary utility, which has reference 
to the primary scope of all moral teaching, the great- 
est good of social beings, makes it a question of great 
concernment to correct morality whether these trades 
be taught or learned in their proper season or no. To 
neglect these things, is omitting to do the good whick 



24 



is in our power to do. The principles of such valua- 
ble associations may be insinuaterl, m some situations, 
very early. We shall see more of this, hereafter. It 
will suffice here to observe that without these trades, 
men were not privileged above brutes, in subsistence, 
and, of course, in the exterior machinery of improve- 
ment 

These are the five separate offices of Education, in- 
to which, however promiscuously it be necessary and 
customary to employ them to accomplish its designed 
end, in the different stages of life and under the dif 
ferent conditions in which it finds its objects, all parts 
of the work ultimately resolve themselves 

Indeed the whole of this business may be resolved 
into that of the modifying of associations by mechani- 
cal influence- The connecting of all other movements 
in the system besides ideas, proceeds from our natural 
capacity of it, and is only modified by way of a me- 
chanical influence, which constitutes these branches of 
Education, which in fact are all one kind of operation : 
yet there is proper distinction of it into several species; 
and there will be found a difference among these in 
reference to an adaptation of fit expedients that sub- 
serve them, and extent of efficiency, that makes it ve- 
ry convenient to designate them by separate heads. 
For the effect we bring about upon the connections of 
the ideas children or adults get, wherein we impress a 
certain tendency of coincidence of their trains and 
tribes, is a mechanical association. The training of 
the organs of articulation to the purpose of communi- 
cation, is a mechanical association; since it is but to 
associate the movements of different sensitive and mus- 
cular fibres imitative of what appearances we would 
make them expressive of; to associate the voluntary 
production of sounds, with the perception of certain 
visible marks and characters which we arbitrarily 
make representatives of them; or, to associate these 



25 



with certain sentiments or ideas in the mind, which as 
names we by habitual use affixing to them, design 
them constantly to signify. The stocking of the mind 
with real ideas and knowledge, and the extending of 
those reflective views of the things about us, which it 
is capable of arriving at by the various arranging and 
combining of its successive perceptions, is also a me- 
chanical association ; for in this we no more than as- 
sociate a variety and multiplicity of ideas with the 
consciousness of existence, which is only increasing 
the number and variety of connections with the idea 
of self-existence, which being inseparable from a per- 
cipient being, to have knowledge of any kind, e. g. that 
gold has a ductility and susceptibility of fusion, is but 
to have such an idea, to wit, that of the co-existence 
of those perceived properties with the other perceived 
qualities of gold, associated with our conscious intui- 
tion of our existence, in such sort that it is inseparable 
from it : to associate certain motions of our muscular 
organs moving conjunctively, with certain sort of mo- 
ral purposes, without any particular connection, but 
only an accordance with the direction of our sympa- 
thy to promote the diffusion of general happiness and 
improvement, which is a concatenation of certain de- 
termination of the will to certain trains of reflection, is 
also a factitious association ; and, likewise, to establish 
the connection and facility of the motions of several 
parts of our muscular frame moving simultaneously, 
in catenation with particular designs subordinately 
subservient to our existence without any immediate 
and essential intervolution with the purpose of moral 
virtue, which trains of associate movement are called 
trades and arts, is evidently a mechanical association : 
so that the whole of this business, is about associa- 
tions of the different movements the parts of the hu- 
man fabric are susceptible of. Yet these live depart- 
ments into which it is here apportioned, are in some 



26 



respects "all different and distinct one from another, 
and require different measures of experimental agency 
to carry them respectively to their ultimate appro- 
priations. One train of expedients is fitted to modify 
the association of the earliest accessions of the appre- 
hensive capacity, and establish proper coalitions of 
ideas in the mind, considered as separate from all par- 
ticular connections with muscular movement ; ano- 
ther train of expedients is proper to induce those ha- 
bits of the organs of sound, and their connection with 
separate ideas, appropriate to the purpose of commu- 
nication; while a somewhat different train of expedi- 
ents subserves our purpose to superinduce those noti- 
ces of things, those opinions, and that knowledge, 
which constitute the furniture of a well improved 
mind, and the immediate result of a regular develop- 
ment and proper application of all its faculties; quite 
another course, with additional expedients, are some- 
times necessary to carry on the business of moral 
Education, by the catenating of the general course of 
voluntary exertion, to a sympathetic purpose of human 
happiness ; and still another compass of recources is 
suited to make artisans, and adepts in those nice pro- 
cesses of motions infinitely diversified in their direc- 
tions, which constitute the mechanical medium of the 
subsistence of human society. Therefore these are 
properly considered as so many distinct and separate 
sta°es in the work of human Education. In this view 
and distribution of the subject matter of Education, I 
consider the pupil merely as a subject possessed of 
understanding and will : but it is necessary in our 
treatment of it, to conduct these several parts of the 
work with a regard to the organization of the system 
as the subject of several passive powers, wherein we 
are to consider it sometimes as also our patient, sus- 
ceptible of several physical associations with which 
the WiU and understanding have, in the pupil itself, 



%7 

nothing to do ; yet are essential to such a temperament 
of the parts of the fabric, and the habits of their physi- 
cal moving, as adapts them to the readiest develope- 
ment of all those excellences we pursue in these dif- 
ferent parts of our work, whether called, intellectual, 
moral, or mechanical. This consideration cf the con- 
duct of our treatment of the pupil, in these parts of 
Education, with advertan *,e to animal organization as 
of a fabric of matter which is the subject of passive 
powers, with a view to preserve all its parts in health 
and vigour, to the end that we may the better facili- 
tate our operations and insure their designed results, 
has by some been put under a distinct predicament, 
which has been called physical Education ; which is 
here properly resolved into a recourse to carry on with 
success and facility the several parts of what may be 
called intellectual and moral Education, which I 
think constitute the mm total of the concerns of this 
pursuit considered as an operation upon percipient 
beings to superinduce the accession of all their sus- 
ceptive improvement, as such ; though as a subsidiary 
expedient pertaining to the province of a phycisianas 
a mechanic artisan, it be necessary to treat the pupil 
as an organized piece of matter, in a manner inde- 
pendently of perceptivity and volition, in order to 
make it capable of the utmost extent and degree of 
those excellences which it is the object of our opera- 
tions to develope. That the sensitive and muscular 
organs be qualified with health and due activity, may 
be an indispensable requisite to the perfection of Edu- 
cation. This is one of our recources ; and an expe- 
dient, of remote reference, to any design, cannot pro- 
perly be reckoned a constitutive part of the business 
of executing that design. Education is the superindu- 
cing of knowledge and habit to the capacity of perci- 
pient beings : and this is, to the natural capacity ; 
what is adherent to the original constitution of the fa- 



£8 



brie as it comes to our hands. Habit itself enlarges 
the capacity, in almost every point of view in which 
we can view it. But to superinduce this capacity to 
an organized system of matter without any intentional 
operation upon understanding or will, is not a distinct 
part of Education, in the sense in which I here consi- 
der it. For, to induce health and vigour, or to increase 
the energy of parts, which extends the susceptibility 
of the effects contemplated in this pursuit, although an 
indispensable expedient to secure the facility and suc- 
cess of it, yet is not a part of the w r ork itself, any 
more than any other appropriate expedient, of which 
the diversity may be governed by contingencies. The 
creature is supposed to be possessed of the distinctive 
faculties of a percipient being. To superinduce 
knowledge and habit to that being, in any of those 
ways above defined, is Education. To take advantage 
of health, soundness, and vigour of organs, or to pro- 
duce those qualities of them, is a propitious and ef- 
ie dive aid to the performance of it in those ways. 



CHAPTER III. 

Of a contrast of Education with the privation of it 

Mush has been said of a contrast of Education with 
a want and privation of it. To me, this is circum- 
scribed in sense. There is no such thing as a total 
privation of this advantage. Every percipient being 
gradually acquires knowledge; progressively receives 
ideas of natural beings ; and, if possessed of voluntary 
power, not universally without some consentaneous 
exertion of this faculty. New ideas, new combinations 
of ideas, successively find admission to the apprehen- 
sion of every percipient being that exists. In getting 
knowledge and opinion, we are partly voluntary. 
Comparing ideas, is an act of the will : therefore the 
perception of the agreement or disagreement of any 
two ideas, necessarily pre-supposes voluntary power. 
Of systematical Education, we observe instances of 
utter neglect. Men deplorably slight and disregard a 
systematical process to bring this about, according to 
a judicious plot. They are too prone to rush heedless- 
ly forward, from the impulsion of untempered and 
ungovernad passions, and suffer themselves and those 
under their gard, to catch their opinions, ^their know- 
ledge, and their habits, at random, from the insupera- 
ble operation of extraneous causes. The advantages 
of a judicious Education, are conspicuous in a diffusion 
of happiness. For whether men have extensive know- 
ledge of means to live at ease and comfort, with a 
competent supply to their natural wants ; or have such 
a knowledge of human nature as disposes them to 
placiditv ; or, which is more than both these, such ha- 

*3 



30 



bits of mind as having associated pleasure with what- 
soever is seriously lovely, make it their meat and 
drink to form and execute philanthropical purposes, 
which is to communicate happiness ; real enjoyment of 
existence among social mankind, is extended ; the 
happiness of the community is increased. Absence of 
care and vigilent attention to appropriate means, che- 
rishes barbarity. This is leaving the reins to passion ; 
whereby the mind of man, like a shattered barque up- 
on tempestuous waters without rudder, tossed in im- 
minent hazard at the mercy of capricious winds, is 
without that fixed course which is indispensable to 
serenity and permanency of enjoyment. The blessings 
resulting; from a good Education, to mankind, in their 
individual and social capacity, in contrast with the 
effects of a neglect of it, I take to be principally 
these : 

I. Extension of natural capacity. Cultivation of 
intellect enlarges the capacity of it, by the same rule 
that the repetition of an action makes it easy and 
pleasurable: and indeed it is the same thing. The 
oftener any fibre is moved, with the greater ease it 
moves, and consequently the greater number of con- 
tractions or vibrations it is capable of making, within 
a given space of time. Sloth and inaction contract 
and debase the capacity of intellect. Who should sit 

erpetually still, would become incapable of moving, 
t is custom that adds power as well as ease. 

II. Multiplication of the causes of pleasure. The 
farther we extend our views into nature, the more ob- 
jects we furnish the mind for contemplation. Pleasure 
being associated with these objects, the same recurs in 
their reminiscence. Memory and imagination revolve 
them in this connection. Evil comes in the same 
channel with good ; but the tendency of a judiciously 
plotted cultivation of mind, is to a preponderance of 
good. Moreover, the search being voluntary, the 



?, 



31 



discovery is desirable : and, being desirable, the gra- 
tification of that desire, associates pleasure with it. 
This extending of views setting out from curiosity, 
and reality not being affected hereby, the philosophic 
mind regrets not the discovery even though it disclose 
evils : which, indeed, may be turned to as good ac- 
count to know what we are to avoid, as the use the 
mariner makes of his delineation of rocks, quicksands, 
and whirlpools. Whereas one whose views are cir- 
cumscribed, enjoys fewer possibilities of entertain- 
ment ; fewer concomitants of pleasurable ideas. It 
may be objected, that this pleasure is more intense ; 
as the constriction of waters, adds to their momentum. 
1 reply, this same intenseness is a detraction from 
tranquillity. It may be further objected, savages of 
confined views, are more constant, more firm in their 
resolutions, not being subject to such levity as men of 
cultivated minds and multivious views, where the 
power of apprehension being dissipated upon the no- 
tice of a great diversity of objects, breaks down the 
force of the voluntary power, and induces irresolution. 
This objection is bottomed on a capital defect in Edu- 
cation. I say this, — it is the business of this very re- 
fined cultivation, and indeed the noblest part of it, to 
prevent that evil. It does not consist with the scope 
of true philosophy, to suffer the effects of extensive 
knowledge, to countermine good qualities and virtu- 
ous habits; for, by strictly observing the dogmas of 
sound morality, we foster constancy as a virtue, and 
do not permit any corrupt desire or vicious quality 
arising from extensive views, to supersede it. 

III. Multiplying the means of animal comfort. All 
those thousands of easing arts, methods, and materials, 
of convenient sustenance, which replenish and adorn 
the stage of social life, arise from studied systematized 
cultivation of mind, and expansion of the powers of 
man. At least their perfection originates solely here- 



3S 

in; and I know of no art, no degree of dexterity iri 
advancing the purposes of active life, which depends 
not on the regulation of thought, and proper applica- 
tion of faculties : and this may be reckoned incipient 
cultivation : since it is only by the medium of use, 
that our faculties are capable of making any progres- 
sion, in regard either of aptness, facility, or capacity. 
The rudest steps towards the first ot all arts of subsis- 
tence, hunting and clothing, suppose the exercise and 
use of the reasoning faculty. 

IV. A general diffusion and increase of true happi- 
ness in the social world. A good Education dignifies 
the intellectual being with those godlike attributes 
which make the greatest degree of happiness consist 
in the communication of happiness. This results 
from true morality. This is the jewel of the art. 
This is the master-piece of those who educate, to as- 
sociate pleasure with what is good to be done. When 
this is accomplished, there remains very little difficul- 
ty in the way of determining the will into a course of 
right conduct. Let me suffer obscurity and contempt ; 
but let me take pleasure in virtuous deeds. Let me 
take pleasure in forming and putting in execution, 
purposes of benevolence, gratitude, hospitality, and 
philanthropy. Nay; let me be treated with rigorous 
injustice ; but let my greatest pleasure be in virtue. 
Let me not abandon my conscientious duty to pursue 
the phantom eclat, or to get rid of oppression. Even 
if I be divested of all practicable means of carrying 
into accomplishment my purposes ; yet, not the less is 
it virtue to cultivate these purposes. 



33 



CHAPTER IV. 

Of instituted mechanical means of Education. 

Men have contrived certain formulary and visible 
means, for their more convenient furtherance of the 
accomplishment of a purpose of Education. The prin- 
cipal whereof are books, and certain established situa- 
tions wherein are maintained select persons to ex- 
plain their books, and communicate what by their own 
observation, experience, and reading, they have ac- 
quired, to those who attend them to get instruction ; 
to which they commonly give the names, schools and 
colleges ; which are vulgarly reckoned indispensable 
to carry to perfection what they call a liberal educa- 
tion, nooks, wherein are preserved the result of the 
experience of studious and industrious men, and exhi- 
bited to succeeding generations, from age to age, trea- 
sures of knowledge and art, for their guides in all 
means of sustenance and active virtue, are of inestima- 
ble moment to the civilized world of mankind in this 
behalf The advantage of seminaries is popular, and 
consists in exonerating the community of parents from 
the burden of educating their families of children. 
There is, furthermore, another advantage, in securing 
permanency and uniformity to the manners of educa- 
ting large numbers of persons. For parents differing 
in their views and habits, naturally tend to different 
ways of educating. But all the children of a society 
being collected under the superintendency of one, or 
a certain set of instructors, there interposes a coinci- 
dence which is propitious to the public Meal. The 
invention of characters is one of those little totalities 



3A 



that extended a beneficial influence to the whole hu* 
man race. That of printing, was afterwards a weigh- 
tier benefit to the more improved part of the commu- 
nity of rationals. By instrumentality of this, men in 
the same moment of time communicated an idea to 
millions of their species. Yet this blessing, as most 
other of the gifts of Providence, is greatly abused. 
Much abuse has crept into the practice of this noble 
art. All true happiness resulting from this and all 
other business, stands intimately connected with spe- 
culative virtue. This art (not perversely appropriated) 
labors to attractively represent what is really good i. 
e. purposes of social virtue, with its beauties and ad- 
vantages. Books and seminaries, then, are the first 
material implements we use, to bring forward the bu- 
siness of Education. To which if we add religious 
establishments, and artificial signs in general, (in dis- 
tinction from what in the constructure of books is par- 
ticular modification of them) I think we shall in these 
four, comprehend whatsoever is of moment in the ma- 
terial part of the means of Education. These are the 
visible apparatus, the materialia secularis, we employ 
for instruments to effectuate the design of superindu- 
cing a set of truths, opinions, and habits, to the capaci- 
ty of a percipient being. Jrtijicial signs, books, semi' 
navies, and religions establishments — these, I say are 
but the material, or mixed applicatives of the project 
of Education. The project of Education, is the gene- 
ral purpose of such sorts of movement as eventuate in 
the accomplishment of Education, or superinduction 
of knowledge and habit in the highest and most advan- 
tageous operable measure and degree, A project is a 
compounded omplex idea, to which is associated ex- 
ertion of voluntary power. A project consists of four 
parts : 1st, motive; 9A, determination ; 3d, applica- 
lives ; 4th, object The motive is the prevailing desire, 
which constitutes the proximate cause of the determi- 



35 



nation of the will. Determination is the final settling 
of the choice and concludent act of the will, extending 
to the operative organs of the system; whereby the 
man is set upon the pursuit of a given end, in consecu- 
tion to the influence of a given desire operating upon 
the mind. Applicatives are the intermediate beings 
the man employs as instruments, as to apply the ex- 
tremes of a project to one another ; and to produce the 
object to real perception; and are resolvable to two 
sorts — substantive, and modal. The substantive, are 
substances, and cailed apparatus, implements, materi- 
als : — modal applicatives are actions, events, circum- 
stances, accidents, relations. Mixed applicatives art 
those which are compounded of substantative and mo- 
dal ones, or whose composition comprises both sub- 
stances and modes. Applicatives are the instituted 
or assumptive causes of the production or develope* 
men t of an object. Substantive applicatives, (purely 
speaking) are made up of substances, about which the 
contemplation, arrangement, application^ appropria- 
tion, and whatever exertions are used to apply these, 
practically, to their ends, are called modal or moral 
applicatives, which in opposition to substances, consist 
of modes and relations. The adaption or adaptedness 
of these applicatives to their objects, is that which is 
called use, in the substantive sense of the word. 

Object is the end ; that which the motive is pointed 
at and directs the will to the pursuit of ; the idea of 
which, causes the motive. Object is that which is the 
consummation of that whereof the motive is the desire 
or wish, and the idea of which, however inadequate, 
that is taken to be a representation of the thing, is the 
cause that originates the motive : since every thing 
must have a cause : even the first moving principle 
we are susceptible of a conception of, being still refe- 
rable to a first cause beyond the verge of our compre- 
hension. The first desire has a moving original : the 



36 



first desire that prompts to action, has a cause. The 
ascendancy of desire, has a cause; whereby one desire 
comes to prevail over another, and to be the greatest 
desire, (for the time being) that exists, instead of ano- 
ther one. The object is the issue of the application of 
a project, whereunto all the energy of the operation is 
conducted ; the idea whereof, is the excitement of the 
motive itself. 

Objects have several degrees, which denominate 
them mediate, immediate, intermediate, primary, final, 
ultimate, proximate, and remote. But the universal 
distribution which the object of every project may ad- 
mit, is merely into immediate object, and ultimate ob- 
ject An immediate object is that which may be con- 
verted to an applicative to another object. An ulti- 
mate object is that beyond which there is not conceiv- 
ed to be any reference to another. In one sense, these 
may belong to every project : when it is a subject of 
successive variation according to the gradual vicissi- 
tudes of our views of life ; one project continually 
running into another, changing its immediate object to 
an applicative, and its ultimate object to an immedi- 
ate one, making its ultimate object that which belongs 
to the succeeding project, and so on : (but in the in- 
convertible sense of the word, an ultimate object can 
be no other than consummate enjoyment.) So in the 
project of healing, the immediate object is expulsion 
of morbific matter, and the ultimate, the instauration, 
of health and ease. In the project of Education, the 
immediate object is improvement of the human pow- 
ers, and the ultimate, their perfection of enjoyment. 
In the project of society, the immediate cbject is solf- 
defence; the ulti.nate, «ecurit y ; which wtttn gfitnM, 
is converted into an applicative in another derivative 
project, whereof civilization is the first object, and iu- 
cre*?e of Vappincss, the ultimate- This refining ad- 
vancement may proceed to several successive degrees 



37 

ef amelioration in respect of moral and physical pow- 
er, and of enjoyment; — each considered as effect of 
the preceding, and cause of the succeeding. 

Artificial signs, books, seminaries, and religious es- 
tablishments, are the substantive applicatives (or, ra- 
ther, the mixed applicatives, being neither altogether 
substantive nor modal) of the project of Education ; 
the vizible machinery, by which we carry on this bu. 
siness. To enter into a description of the particulars 
whereof these are made up, and how their construc- 
ture has been advanced, is a speculation however amu- 
sing and even useful in another view, I shall defer, as 
lying out of the way of my present design, which is 
only to open a general view of the mechanical part of 
this project, and the capital means by which it is put 
forward ; of which, since I shall have occasion hereafter 
to speak more at length of these applicatives so far as 
they comport with the predicament institutes, I sup- 
pose sufficient has already been said for that purpose 
in this place. 



38 



£AHT II. 

Of abuses and defects in Education. 



CHAPTER I. 

Of abuses and defects, in respect to morals. 

Among all the blunders mankind has fallen into, 
one of the most extensively mischievous and fatal er- 
rors which the civilized part of the human race has 
been guilty of, appears to arise from their miscalcula- 
tions in the matter of the Education of young. It is 
at first view, in no small degree astonishing to a phi- 
losophical observer, that there should be found on the 
stage of civil society (taking civilization a thing which 
rises on a refined Education, pre-supposing a plodded 
proficiency in the arts, methods, and means of improv- 
ing and expanding the human faculties) multitudes of 
youth more passionately wild, and capable of more 
extravagance than even is to be seen in savages who 
range the uncultivated woods, who are scarcely allow- 
ed to have advanced a single step towards polished 
civilization, among whom are yet found instances of 
mildness, generosity, hospitality, a surpassing sinceri- 
ty and frankness, and such a pure operation of natural 
sympathy as reflects a reproach upon the fastidious 
board of civilized life. How is it that civilization does 



39 

possibly progress to this deplorable reverse ? How is 
it that the civilized man becomes an object more to be 
dreaded and shunned than the barbarian ? — Nay, even 
more horrible than the tyger, the wolf, the catamount, 
and the hyeena ?* How is it that we come to behold 
many of the youth of enlightened, organized societies, 
where all arts and sciences flourish, and their dissemi- 
nation prevails — how is it, I say, we find here youth 
descriptively the imps of the famed evil principle of 
the Universe, the author of all obliquity and pain ? It 
is, in short, by leaving aside morals ; and perverting 
those physical acquests; or acquisitions of physical 
knowledge to the understanding, which extend its 
power over the means of improvement and happiness : 
and this lies mainly in the conduct of parents, that 
influence the treatment of Education. It is unques- 
tionably the duty of every parent to educate his chil- 
dren well ; yet where is the parent who does it per- 
fectly r A defect in this thing, spreads contageously ; 
it even flows in the blood : which being matured in the 
example of grown freemen, it is very difficult for any 
one parent to educate a family with effectual correct- 
ness — still his task is superable; but the finishing must 
devolve to the subject's conscious self; as every man 
of skill is found to be, ultimately, his own tutor. 
This stage has its difficulties from the same cau*e, 
which obtrudes not only temptations, but confusion of 
mind. To come now more closely upon the subject I 
set out to investigate; Education is a matter of much 
greater importance than is generally thought. It is of 
almost infinite consequence, flowing from generation 
to generation : and the first part of it, which is gene- 
rally reckoned the least, is, in fact, of the greatest 
consequence of all. The earliest sentiments take the 
deepest root : the first impressions are the most dura- 
hie, and of the strongest cast. Whereas the unreflec- 
ting parent passes over with perfect indifferency the 



40 



Education ©f infants, which is a very important part 
of the science of Education. He talks at random to 
his child, plays at random ; and follows very rarely any 
other guide than his multivious caprice, in his whole 
treatment. This neglect of infant Education, paves 
the way for all the impediments, that follow, in the 
course of the prosecution of the remaining parts. The 
science and art of Education, any more than any other 
science and art, cannot be comprehended without stu- 
4y. An assiduous application of the intellectual fa- 
culties to voluntary thinking, is indispensably prere- 
quisite to the comprehending and effectual putting in- 
to practice, of this important business. Now, the un- 
suspecting unguarded mind of the vulgar, taking the 
first part to be no science and no education at all, 
finally omits the study, intirely, of every part, and ne- 
ver comes persuaded that it is a science to be learned, 
and capable of method ; — which yet the main business 
of moral philosophy consists in. This gross negli- 
gence, this delinquency, I am apt to imagine is attri- 
butable to none more than to the following causes : 

First. A sensuous scrupulosity, on an advertance 
to the prospects and circumstantiality that incidental- 
ly concomitate this subject, which repels the energy of 
contemplation from its special bearings. Thus, when 
any one whose Education having been corrupt, inad- 
vertaut, or governed by chance, he, in consequence of 
it, urged by the baleful influence of example without, 
and the impulse of his ungoverned passions within, 
has committed several faults, crimes, and follies in 
the early part of life, comes to rtflect seriously within 
himself, the reminiscence of those past points of his 
experience, induces inevitable compunction. The 
sight of his own children and of their congenial pro- 
pensities, excites this reminiscence, while it stays the 
hand of a judicious discipline by dint of a vicious sym- 
pathy, an unregenerate love, and the whole, by way of 






41 

association of ideas, drags a train of sentiments of 
multifarious formation indeed, but of wonderful effici- 
ency, which, consisting of the idea of a fond parent, 
an apt veneration for that parent, the idea of his own 
juvenile weaknesses and obliquities (for which his 
self-love may still retain in him too favorable a re- 
gard,) and that compunction which arises from the 
effects of these, all together conspire to generate such 
a state of suspense, incertitude, and confusion of mind, 
as is very obstructive to the studying and effectually 
executing of the design here referred to. Reflection 
being unpleasant, the man shrinks from it ; and this 
shrinking from reflection being indulged till it becomes 
a habit, contracts and debases the intellectual capaci- 
ty. Thus from being unwilling, he becomes unable 
to execute well, that of which he has not taught him- 
self to think highly enough at first For it is the 
greatest uneasiness present, not the greatest good in 
future prospect, by which the will is determined. 
The earlier the business of educating children is sys- 
tematically begun, the easier is the task ; for " as the 
twig is bent, the tree will incline." It is an easy task, 
not a laborious one, to mould an infant mind , but it is 
a matter of nicety, and requires attention, very differ- 
ent from the jumbled and vulgar course of the uncul- 
tivated world* 

Secondly. That general aversion to study and con- 
templation, which pervades mankind at large. Men 
are generally averse to close voluntary thinking ; not 
only because it obtrudes on them contristating ideas, 
but from that common indolency which more especi- 
ally affects voluntary thinking than voluntary muscu- 
lar motion, on account of early custom, as well as on 
account of its being easier to find pleasurable fantazies 
in a quiescent state of the mind, than pleasurable sen- 
sations in a quiescent state of the body. Quiescent I 
would here be understood to oppose merely to that 



42 



activity which implies application of voluntary power. 
Now, a man that is uniformly averse to study, cannot 
educate youth well ; for an art must be learned before 
it can be practiced. To be learnt it must have ab- 
stract and intent application of mind : and this, of all 
other arts, requires at the outset, the most dispassion- 
ate perpension This dullness is the cause of all that 
awkwardness and indocility in regard to all other arts 
and sciences as well as those of Education. If men 
will not exercise their faculties by an examination of 
natural causes and effects, they cannot be apt in any 
art or operation whatever. Ignorance is reckoned by 
some philosophers, the true original sin : and surely 
there is no sin anterior to this criminal neglect to ap- 
ply the faculties to acquire knowledge. For there can 
be no sin where is no knowledge at all ; and this is the 
first general knowledge any can have of themselves, 
that they have a capacity and a need to acquire know- 
ledge : this is amongst the first of our knowledge. 

Now, as in the want of knowledge in any important 
art or science that is of great consequence to the pub- 
lic, and to one's self, and not only to one's cotempora- 
ries but to those who come after him, proportionable 
guilt is implicated ; so, in this case, in regard to Edu- 
cation, the greater degree of turpitude pertains to this 
species of fault forasmuch as there is no event which 
drags after it more extensive and weighty effects, than 
the manner in which children are trained. 

Thirdly. Example. Under this head I comprehend 
the example of some parents as well as that of the 
multitude of youth viciously trained : both of which 
are very oppressive to some few parents in the throng 
of a community, with which they are connected by se- 
veral ties of relation ; who would gladly keep the path 
of rectitude in this thing, were it possible for them to 
pursue it, clear of such insuperable obstacles, where 
*he intrusive intervention of these ill bred adversaries 



43 

of social happiness, incessantly countermines all their 
wholesome precepts and judicious example : not to say, 
one man's carelessness makes another man careless 
by a continual excitation of the imitative propensity. 
From this point, sets in a general dissolution of man- 
ners gradually prostrating the dignity of moral max- 
ims through the social world. O shame to the boast- 
ing inheritors of christian liberty ! Ah, melancholy re- 
flection upon the stage of civil life ? The fact is, there 
is a track struck out by a few extravagant pursuers of 
fantastical pleasure, whose glorification is in a public 
exhibition of luxury and pageantry ; whose course, me- 
teor-like, is attractively resplendant ; to whom the 
multitude of a poorer condition, are ultroneously ob- 
sequious, and catch their manners in all the ardour of 
imitative felicitation. Hence that strange deity fashion 
is set upon a throne, to mete out the bounds and lines 
of human transactions, and there become established 
some sacred (though rather vague) general rules and 
measures for the commonalty to square their conduct 
by, in building, painting, furniture, dress, educating 
youth, eating:, drinking, singing, speaking, and every 
part of the business of civil life : which rules and mea- 
sures, for want of the study of nature, come to be 
more venerated and observed than any other laws 
whatsoever. Thus flows the pregnant spring of hu- 
man depravity. One ill-bred youth infects hundreds 
of others with the poisonous principles of licentious- 
ness, too easily taking root in the soil of inexperienced 
minds when not guarded by the hand of a judicious 
culturer. So, the good parent is even discouraged: 
and by being discouraged, he loses his inclination and 
his ability to work sedulously in this field. The worst 
of it is, these influential personages usually are parti- 
cularly loose in the Education of their young. Now, 
what can be expected will be the impressions youth 
will feel, when, coming abroad among his compeers. 



44 

he hears uttered familiarly by all, profane expression, 
lewd expression, expression of anger, of indignation, 
of contempt for superiors, vain blasphemous words 
treating with ridicule the names of the greatest beings 
in the universe, vulgar words, incorrect dialect, &c? 
Apt as he is to take good impressions when free from 
interception, he is, alas ! equally apt to take bad ones, 
in the same habitude. Many of our popular personages 
fancy if they can learn youth to read, write, and com- 
pute well, and to deport with fashionable decorum, 
their task is accomplished ; thinking little or nothing 
of morality. A perversion of physical acquirements, 
causes a neglect of morals; and a neglect of morals 
causes, in its turn, a perversion of physical acquire- 
ments. 

Fourthly. The public preaching is of a sort that 
does not promote, but rather retards the cultivation of 
this art. Instituted teachers in pulpits, do not empha- 
tically inculcate the principles of Education. They 
either entirely leave morals aside, or they very much 
distort and entangle them, while they offer them in an 
adulterate state. There are those sects who go so far 
as to alledge that he who trusts to good works, i. e. he 
who depends upon the merit of his voluntary conduct 
for his final good ; and who practices virtue for the re- 
ward of virtue, is damned. 

This is laying the axe to the root of human excel- 
lence. This dissuades men from the practical pursuit 
of social virtue. When mankind are told they merit 
nothing by their own voluntary good purposes and 
good actions (which certainly are the supreme embel- 
lishment of human kind) ; ancl, further, that it is crimi- 
nal to consider any merit in them ; where will they 
look for their pre-eminence? Wherein shall they 
make their excellence to consist, when they are train- 
ed or persuaded to believe such a proposition? For, 
if one thing be not more conducive to happiness (to the 



45 



greatest good) than another; by what means shall 
men be incited to pursue one thing rather than ano- 
ther? And if men be not incited to pursue one thingin 
preference to another, what becomes of order, safety, 
peace, and propriety ? And where is the mighty import 
of attending to the discrimination, establishment, or 
guardianship of such things? In another word, what 
is the importance of human action ? Now, uhat can 
there be more excellent, more lovely, more worthy of 
esteem and love, more to be admired, in human nature, 
than moral virtue ? And is there no merit in it ? Is 
there no reward ? No good consequence catenated to 
it, that is paramount to the privations which attend 
the undertaking ? If it is a cause of diffusion of happi- 
ness, it being voluntary why is it not meritorious ? 
Let this question be answered. For what is merit ? 
A worthiness to receive and enjoy the effect that is 
instituted by the supreme mover of all, to follow a 
good action, which effect is a reward. 

A clear proficiency in true physiology, for a founda- 
tion ; next to this a habit of free and open manners, 
^vith skill and aptness in the social virtues, such as 
integrity, gratitude, patriotism, hospitality, meekness, 
chanty ; must be the ultimate ingredients that go to 
make up a character preeminent in our race, as the 
race is above that of monkeys. Virtue should be com- 
mended and esteemed. Virtue should have the respect 
and good will of men. The rewards of virtue and the 
punishmeuts of vice, which the law of nature annexes 
to our voluntary conduct, should be held up to the 
view of men's minds in their most exciting form ; 
should be impressively inculcated ; and the beauties 
and advantages of virtue, and the deformities and dis- 
advantages of vice, should be thrown open in the way 
of men's notice, in their genial colouring, in order to 
incite them to pursue the one and to avoid the other. 
There is a reward of virtue that is simultaneous with 



m 

the exercise of it; The satisfaction that attends the 
consciousness of doing well, is the greatest reward of 
virtue ; for it brings in its train the idea of the happi- 
ness it communicates; and sweetens all contempla- 
tion, recollection, and study. There is, furthermore* 
another idea, men get from their public teachers, which 
is mischievously depressive in its influence upon the 
cause of moral improvement, viz ; that there is supe- 
rior will overruling their wills, to which superior will, 
however stupid or fanatic theirselves may be, all their 
determinations together with the consequences of 
them, are attributable; that all vice, as well as virtue, 
is previously plan'd out and foreordained by that su- 
perior Being in whom that will resides: and such sen- 
timents as " it was to be so" — "it is so ordered*'— 
" it was decreed, what can I avail"— " I have such a 
character as I was made to have," and, * whatever is, 
is right,' 9 come to be familiar common-place resorts 
for the weak and unwary mind. Now, all these things 
representing morality a rather inferior thing in itself; 
or a matter of fate out of the province of men's imme- 
diate duty, tend to make people in general, neglectful 
of teaching it to their children : while, what is substi- 
tuted for the public teaching of plain ethics, consisting 
principally of a mystical theology, staggers and con- 
fuses the tender mind of youth, and either makes it 
\intractable to right tuition, or prejudices it against 
all public and private teach ng whatever. This spoils 
a good Education begun, and pre-disposes the vacant 
mind for very bad qualities. Publicly teaching pure 
ethics, is a momentous desideratum, of most valuable 
efficiency in educating youth and in directing others 
to educate them. In fine, Education should be the 
main business of periodical preachers. 

Fifthly Excessive storge. In other words, an in- 
temperate attachment to, and dotage on, the persons 
of children; which consists only with appropriating 



47 

them as instruments of pleasure, either fantastical or 
sensitive So, those persons who affect to love their 
children most supremely, and appear most exquisitely 
sympathetic in their regard to their offspring, do in 
fact do them the most harm of all descriptions of peo- 
ple. This wanton humouring and extravagant indul- 
gence given to infants, has not in view the good of the 
children themselves, but is done merely to promote 
the parent's or nurse's own personal selfish pleasure. 
Now, this storge is a conspicuous part of the animal 
constitution, but like all other parts, it was made to be 
controlled by reason. Like all other affections and 
passions pertaining to human nature, its operation is 
liable to run into a degrading extreme when not over- 
ruled and moderated into a subordinate contempera- 
ment by the reasoning mind deliberating on the con- 
sistency of its several applications. The inconsiderate 
takes a method with infants, that is apt to give them 
the characters of the ape kind. This is conspicuous in 
teaching them to apply their organs of speech defec- 
tively and barbarously, when it were easier and ;nore 
natural for them to learn to articulate correctly; in 
setting them mimic patterns of inordinate indulgence 
of passion ; and in diverting them from one passion by 
gratifying another equally bad. Thus in this period of 
existence, when the mind of man is most susceptible 
and most ductile, the golden opportunity is passed by, 
of establishing a proportional subordination of the 
springs of action, and biassing the ruling passion to 
the sentiment and practice of virtue These, I think 
are some of the principal causes that make people in 
general, careless about seeking sure means to substan- 
tiate good morals in those who depend on them and 
to renier their characters eminent for that which is 
the only excellence human nature is susceptible of. 

This remissness at home, is the first and insurmoun- 
table bar to a good Education, by rendering children 




48 



unwelcome subjects of a tutor abroad; whereupon 
they come into school with bad dispositions, or dull 
and unapt in their intellectual faculties, averse to stu- 
dy and books, by reason of having had no pleasure 
associated with their ideas of letters* 

It being a thing which to persons of reflection, must 
appear somewhat surprizing, that parents and those 
who have the managery 01 ductile minds, should be 
thus particularly wanting and indifferent, regarding a 
point of so obvious moment as the forming of moral 
character ; it may not be impertinent to inquire a little 
more critically after the causes of this delinquency. 
It is not very difficult to account for this default in 
the laborious part of the commonalty, who being 
choaked with cares and coarse pleasures, attend to no 
delicate business : but why persons of great fortunes 
and proportionable leisure, with refined and cultivated 
intellects, which must admit clear notices of the re- 
mote consequences of early biasses, should be so far 
off their guard as to take the direct course to form bad 
characters in their children instead of good, seems al- 
most unaccountable. A considerable reason is, in fact, 
this : they think that good morals will, in due time, 
come to them of course, by the maturity of those here- 
ditary principles they draw from their progenitors. 
So high an opinion men have of themselves Sensible 
that theirselves are respected ; that they entertain no 
socially bad principles ; that the family has been 
marked by the advantages and refining discrimina- 
tions of a judicious Education; they seem persuaded 
to trust that virtue will spring up spontaneously in 
their children when they shall come to discretion, as 
if the seeds of it were interfused in their blood altoge- 
ther. Entertaining this fantastical position, they deem 
it needless to be at pains in applying artful mean* to 
radicate just principles of morals in their descendants. 
This accounts for so many arrant sons of persons no- 



49 

ted for piety. They fancy they ma^ indulge them- 
selves in that capricious pleasure their light thoughts 
have reckoned a dear inheritance ; that pleasure which 
pertains to an uncontrolled fondling of the persons of 
their children, widi a notice of their career in the ele- 
ment of absolute liberty. It is an excessive attachment 
to their persons and peculiar relation, which they suf- 
fer to lead themselves into a thousand irregular flirts 
destructively pernicious with a view to morals : for it 
is not merely neglecting good morals ; but it is plant- 
ing the very seeds of bad principles and habits. • Now 
they take up the persuasion that they may safely in- 
dulge a little in all this entertainment, in the gratifi- 
cation of their own childish humors theirselves know 
to be unwise, and by and by the promising gentry will 
exhibit all the fruits of virtue from the real intrinsic 
prin iples of them, nature has preserved in their very 
being ! Never was a more disastrous misconception 
than this, i. e. of more disastrous consequences. With 
regard to the more gay and licentious part of the qua- 
lity, it cannot be expected that those who, theirselves, 
despise the practice of virtue, shall feel obligation to 
inculcate the principles of it in their children. Folly 
has become fashionable. A degree of extravagance 
has become the decided associate of honor and the 
respect of the multitude. And this suggests to me 
another occasion which I think makes distinguished 
personages decline the teaching of morals; and that is 
this: they reckon it derogatory to the dignity of them- 
selves and families. For it is even looked on by the 
commonalty as mark of superior ingenuity, in a 
young upstart, to act surprizing feats of petty villai- 
ny, and be (as they call it) * a little knavish $? and to 
trammel the young gentry to the demure livery of pre- 
ceptive discipline, is thought superstitious: and the 
world esteems them not so sublime models of imitfc* 
so fit objects of public remark* 




50 



CHAPTER II. 

Of Prejudice. 

By prejudice I mean a wrong association of ideas : 
that is, what is otherwise called an unnatural associa- 
tion of ideas. For example, — the idea of contempt is 
associated with that of any particular moral duty : the 
idea of misery with that of poverty, &c. In forming 
prejudices, we are somewhat voluntary : in some de- 
gree governed by certain desires and aversions. These 
wrong associations originate what are called errone- 
ous judgments and false opinions. These wrong as- 
sociations rise sometimes from chance, and sometimes 
from a remissness in infant Education. A scrutinous 
care of the latter, overrules the former. The ideas of 
certain passions associated with those of certain 
sounds, is a notorious instance of this anomalous asso- 
ciation* The ideas of virtue, pleasure, ease, associated 
with the ideas of certain situations, or the configura- 
tions of certain places, is a great and injurious preju- 
dice : for this tends to make the subjects of it misera- 
ble, and presumptuously remiss : for while there is 
nothing in these extraneous things to constitute, or 
virtually produce, either happiness or virtue, men still 
refer them hereto, and referring, prorogue them, 
which very proroguing is folly, and its adjunct misery. 
It is not in place or circumstance to inspire virtu- 
ous purposes, otherwise than by suggesting them, 
through the reminiscence ot an adventitious conco- 
mitance of these in some former instance. But this is 
not strong enough to operate at all times. This asso- 
ciation is not firmly enough established to hold a 



♦ 51 

operative continuance. We are apt to connect them 
in the rovings of our imaginations, and propose that 
when we reach such a place or such circumstances, 
we will steadily pursue such a system of conduct, or 
such a theme of contemplation. Inducements vanish, 
at the conjuncture. It is not in the power of place or 
its incidents, to superinduce such purposes, or habits 
of mind. It is practice that alone can do it. So, 
neither can place give happiness. Contentment is the 
substance, and happiness its shadow. Contentation of 
mind, and satisfaction with the present experience, i. 
e. a reduction of desire, or uneasiness, is the substance 
of the thing itself of which we make an object when 
we seek happiness. To put oft', therefore, the execu- 
tion of virtuous purposes, till we may be qualified 
with certain topographical circumstances, is criminal 
in a great degree. The idea of infallibility strongly 
associated with that of a particular person, is a perni- 
cious prejudice. Also the idea of truth connected 
with that of antiquity, is a remarkable instance cf this 
wrong association, and one that tends very much to 
encumber the progress of science: for when men take 
there is nothing will serve for the te&i of truth but 
what is old, what advance will they make in any 
brand) of knowledge, especially in those which are the 
gatherings of experiment and observation? A more 
common acceptation of the word prejudice, is what is 
by another word called pre-possession : that is, an at- 
tachment or aversion to any particular person, or to 
certain propositions, arguments, theories. This is cal- 
led prejudice in favor of, and prejudice against, a 
given subject. This attachment and aversion are 
grounded on thebeforementioned associations of ideas, 
which in a general philosophical sense, aptly enough 
take the name Prejudice. To guard effectually against 
these, in forming the young mind, is a matter of criti- 
cal moment. This all belongs to the art of regulating 




52 

associations. These prejudices are of various descrip- 
tions. There are religious prejudices, literary preju- 
dices, scientifical prejudices, national prejudices, per- 
sonal prejudices. Religious prejudices are the charac- 
teristics of superstition. Bigotry and superstition have 
done great mischief to the intelligent world Many 
eastern nations have connected their idea of Almighty 
power, with that of a factitious image. Gross matter, 
with particular configurations, is considered by them 
the substratum of such existence. Common animals 
and vegetables are adored as gods,— inheritors of su- 
preme wisdom and power ; superintendents of the 
unsearchable and invincible operations of the material 
universe! The Egyptians worshipped onions; the 
Hindoos, a hawk; the Persians, fire: some, also un- 
der the form of a huge serpent, beheld by the eye of 
imagination, the governor of the world, and disposer 
of all events. A power of cleansing from moral tur- 
pitude, is attributed to water Washing the external 
surface of the body, is thought to clear from guilt, and 
secure divine tutelage. The papist fancies he offends. 
his God by eating with a knife which has touched flesh 
other than fish, on certain days: and, finally, the 
whole race of man is split into opiniative sects, at 
dagger's drawing with each other, in behalf of some 
theoretical quodlibets concerning existences beyond 
the perceptible sphere of natural realities. Now every 
.speculatory observer immediately perceives that such 
as the foregoing instances arc ot the most grossly 
jumblM combinations of ideas, joining together inco- 
herent inconsistent things, such as do not co exist in 
nature. Those who are charged with educating 
others, taking such steps as tend to engender preju- 
dice in the minds whereof they have the forming, is a 
deplorable abuse. This is a grossly abusive delin- 
quency in Education. If it be from ignorance, it is an 
abuse in those who knowing the proper means and 



53 



methods, rashly select and instate such persons to do 
that business whereunto they are incompetent. If it 
be a parent forming the characters of his own children, 
it is a more criminal neglect of learning the proper 
rise of the happiness of his offspring, and the meavis 
to avoid entailing misery on them, as well as making 
them occasions of misery to others. If it be one who 
educates himself, it is both pitiable and criminal : he is 
sealing calamity to his fortune, and sowing the seeds 
of misery in the paths of others. 

There are six ways whereby this thing is done. 1st, 
by the agency of nurses; 2d, by that of parents ; 3d, 
by that of deputed tutors ; 4th, by that of those neigh- 
bors and companions with whom the subjects commu- 
nicate, whose views and modes of thinking they are 
apt unawares to imbibe, in that susceptible and duc- 
tile state of the mind that marks the period of adoles- 
cency ; 5th, by that of public teachers; and 6th, by books. 

First. By way of the agency of nurses. Nurses 
who have the handling of infant minds, often do con- 
siderable execution in this line. It is their master- 
piece to associate terror with the ideas of those things 
which, from any sort of motive, they are used to desire 
the child to avoid. Hence horror is the immemorial 
adjunct of darkness, which is nothing more than the 
absence or privation of rays of the particles of li^ht. 
Hence also spectres, hobgoblins, witches, omens. 
They have likewise a notorious trick of inspiring aver- 
sion to such particular objects as they would have 
them shun or hate: hence thousands of unreasonable 
antipathies ; and sometime unaccountable contempt of 
certain individuals. In doing all this, the nurse uses 
art. She goes about the thing as a work of urgent im- 
portance. Afterwards, pursuing the advancing youth, 
to the threshold of manhood, she through the medium 
of familiarity and affection, transfuses in rational lan- 
guage into his ears, fantastical stories, silly traditiojua* 
*5 



54 



ry tales, that substantiate really injurious prejudice, 
with difficulty to be extirpated. 

Secondly. By the agency of parents. These are 
often the nurses of their own children. Parents and 
fond relatives are accustomed to introduce much pre- 
judice into the minds of the young offspring, by rashly 
extravagant applications to their capricious humors in 
behalf of an overfondness ; as well as designedly, from 
prejudices of their own, and from interest. Prejudice 
and interest move them to cultivate certain biases in 
their children. They would have them averse to par- 
ticular ways of living, and particular trades ; and 
therefore would fix in them a contempt for the persons 
that follow them, and for other concomitants : the 
ideas of abjection and misery are yoked with the ideas 
of such objects; all being proposed as things that co- 
exist in nature. Sometimes it is for their interest, for 
their families to be averse to, avoid, and hold in con- 
tempt, certain individuals and certain ranks : so they 
work seduously from settl'd principle, to train their 
offspring accordingly. The people of one province 
sneer at those of another : there has, perhaps, existed 
a cause to shun and hate them : thence prevails a com- 
mon prejudice in the unpolished mind, perpetually 
cherish'd by all discriminative references through the 
round of vulgar converse. Gentlemen of the northern 
states, would give their children and dependants, a 
contemptuous opinion of the people of the southern 
states ; and gentlemen of the southern states would 
cherish in theirs a contemptuous view of those of the 
northern. People of one nation make it a piint of 
fashion to speak contemptuously of another. England 
would hold Ireland in contempt ; and Ireland, Eng- 
land. America would disfavor Germany, Spain, Per- 
sia, as well as also her red natives of the west; and 
Tice versa. When I speak of nations, 1 mean the 
commonalty, in general. It is owing to this childish 



55 

aptitude to national prejudice, the concomitant and 
discrimination of barbarism, that one nation instead of 
seeking by amicable barter and the arts of philanthro- 
py, to obtain inheritance and peaceful establishment 
in a country inhabited by another, resort to murder 
and ravage, to make room for themselves in the way 
of mechanical force; as if, forsooth, none but those of 
their one language, colour, and manners, were proper 
subjects to be computed in the rank of human beings. 
How deplorably this diverges from the cultivation of 
philanthropy ! Thus the emigrants from England 
mowed down, or drove before them, the natives of this 
western hemisphere. Thus Britain has seized upon 
the pleasant parts of India and Africa ; and, in reposing 
her formidable limbs, crushed myriads of the native 
tenants of the soil. And thus, several civilized nations 
lave worked their way into the uncultivated regions 
of the earth. 

Tliirdly. By the agency of deputed tutors. Unskil- 
ful persons being deputed to act in the capacity of 
instructors, to whom the managery of adolescent un- 
derstandings being entrusted, very innocently induce 
several prejudices: while there are some who would 
do the same thing out of craft, for the subservience of 
an aristoratical policy. An endeared school-master 
lias great ascendancy in this respect. Those who have 
the forming of youth, being ignorant, fanatic, or cor- 
rupt, the latter arc in critical hazard of being deluded 
and grossly principled. A common prejudice that 
comes from tutors, is the bias to a stiff coxcomical car- 
riage. I say coxcomical, because all incidental and 
accessary movements are squared to fixed rules no 
how applicable to the principal ; which if they be not 
the ostensible discriminations of a fop's character, are 
the ultimate principles of it. 

Fourthly. By efficiency of neighbors and pheere 
Now, here is a great inlet of prejudice. The expand- 



56 



ing mind conversing with the world, is liable to admit 
some wrong combinations. The world is uncultivated, 
and harbors traditionary stuff, which is venerated for 
its antiquity. Tell the simplest fabrication that may 
be ; let it be discredited and thought ever so nugato- 
ry ; let it be recorded ; the fourth generation shall 
swallow it; the fifth shall range it amongst their choice 
proverbs and adages ; and the sixth shall metamor- 
phose it into a maxim ! Various fantastical ideas have 
been drawn into a complexure with real ones, from the 
Greek mythology down to the history of Robinson 
Crusoe. Children hearing their familiar bystanders 
speaking plausibly of a particular person, representing 
him as noble, magnanimous, pre eminently generous, 
and otherwise worthy of general respect, and this be- 
ing a habitual topic among them, dignity is joined with 
the idea of that person. Just so the common goods 
and calamities of life, are magnified, and made to ap - 
pear something more than wnat they are. The idea 
of misery is associated with the one, and of happiness 
with the possession of the other. 

Fifthly. By public preachers. Here superstition 
and fanaticism open their floodgates of prejudice and 
hallucination. These are the artillery of mystical 
theology. Every nation has had some enthusiasts. A 
vivid inventive imagination joined with a melancholic 
temperament and confined understanding, is the crea- 
ture which has hatched into the world monstrous sys- 
tems stuffed with chimeras. Look into India and 
China! into Spain, Italy, and Turkey! Look into 
Egypt and Arabia ! Look into Lapland and Spitsber- 

ten! What grotesque fashions human intelligences 
ave submitted to be habited in ! It is the practice 
there is with these public preachers to speak mystical 
things, and speak with utter contempt and sometimes 
denunciation of other writers and preachers of plain 
morality, who, they are assured hold different creeds 



57 

from theirs concerning such existence as is beyond the 
scrutiny of human faculties, that, prejudices people 
against those moralists ; placing the* idea of virtue in 
concatenation with that of supernatural efficiency. 
But the worst prejudice of all, that they tend to in- 
duce, is the prejudicing of young vacant minds (who 
were else ingenuously open to truth and right reason- 
ing) against all moral teaching whatever. 

Sixthly. By books. Many are the books which con- 
tain prejudicate hypotheses: and these, the common 
people are most eager after Indeed such structures 
seem most aptly fitted to minds little cultivated. The 
reading of some authors is apt to prejudice the mind 

agninst ancient moralists; of others, against the mo- 
dern: while some reading tends to prejudice one 
against his own country. The reading of novels, pre- 

1'udices people against nature itself. Their idea of 
tappiness being associated with the ideas of unreal 
'beings, or ofsach as do not at present exist, they can- 
not be pleased with the real : hence discontent and 
ambition. Furthermore, the habitual reading of novels, 
if it do not directly subvert moral principles, works 
an indifferency to all solid accessions of intellectual 
excellence, by accustoming the imagination to a flow 
of excitements that it does not find in the pursuit of 
real knowledge and metaphysical truth : whereby the 
mind becomes weak and indolent, from a deficiency of 
proper exercise : for those particular faculties that are 
developed and employed in investigating reality or 
acquiring actual improvement, are not, herein, called 
into much exertion, and voluntary thinking is almost 
totally disused ; the main pursuit being that of certain 
emotions of pleasure and pain, which a particular train 
of incidents and images is wont to elicit. It is im- 
possible for a young person who finds pleasure in no- 
vel reading, to" find pleasure in the pursuit of solid sci- 
ence. The love of science is incompatible with the 



58 

love of romance. This frivolous chase after fantasti- 
cal shapes and shadows, constitutes the whole specu- 
lation of numerous young people in civilized countries, 
who, from habit, can relish no other species of litera- 
ture but fiction With these, truth is a disparagement 
to all books. They become disgusted with the thought 
of truth and reality. This extravagance prevails in 
common custom, to the incumbrance, and often defeat, 
of new publications on science. Hence, nothing is 
easier than for a bookseller to get what is called a for- 
tune by a new novel ; and one who is fishing for an es- 
tate, can get hold of no better hook and line, nor find one 
so well baited. The most formidable of all literary 

prejudices, is that which parents give children, against 

letters. It is done, frequently, unawares. I mean the 
association of pain with their first notices of letters. 
Indeed it requires no more than the omitting to asso- 
ciate pleasure with them : for these are the reverse of 
entertainment ; these are objects to which nature has 
given no charms. They are merely figures which men 
have invented, to put into combinations they design to 
stand as representatives of ideas in their minds, that 
they may be thereby denoted to others. These figures 
must be impressed upon the memory, and catenated 
with certain sounds, before there is any use to be had 
of them either in writing, reading, or speaking. The 
pleasure of learning these impressions must be purely 
adscititious. It is merely a mechanical combination. 
It rests altogether upon the artful managery of over- 
lookers ; the craft of those who superintend the sub- 
ject. By omitting to associate pleasure with the ideas 
of letters and books, in the apprehensions of children, 
we do the same thing as associate pain with them. 
They are in effect, to them, privations of other objects 
more delightsome. Attention to these, supersedes other 
sports, and other ideas, which are apt to delight. And 
for this bare reason, that letters preclude their enter- 



59 



tainment, the ideas of letters bring pain along with 
them. Till there be a total reversion of this state of 
things, there never can be any proficiency made by a 
child. 




60 



CHAPTER IIL 
Of Example. 

Having spoken of a total neglect of morals, and of 
the engendering of prejudice in the minds of young, 
as abuses of the privileges and abilities civilized man- 
kind inherit in respect to the matter of Education ; I 
proceed to take a particular view of that, which, though 
it is little regarded by people in general, yet has great 
efficiency, being perhaps, that lurking enemy, of which 
men not being aware, are in more danger of suffering 
by, than by an obvious one. I mean the exhibition of 
improper examples to those whose Education we influ- 
ence. Some moral writers have maintained that ex- 
ample is more forcible than precept ; which is to saj-, 
in other words, example has greater effect than pre- 
cept, in determining the will, and disposing the mind 
of man. There is in man a propensity to imitate or 
act over again, the movements he sees performed by 
others of his species. This propensity of imitation, is 
a part of his nature. Creatures made of similar mate- 
rials, and organized upon a similar plan one with ano- 
ther, are susceptible of the same impressions and feel- 
ings, from the same objects. The same irritation in- 
troduces the same perception in all : and the same 
perception naturally has a tendency to excite the same 
passions, in a greater or less degree. Thus fire will 
cxcitt such an irritation as produces the sensation 
pain Frost causes the sensation cold, and consecu* 
tively pain. Again, a less degree of heat from the ap 
Hcation of fire, produces pleasure, A repetition of 
fibrous movements by different parts of the same sys- 



6i 



tern, or by correspondent parts of different individual 
systems, may be called sensitive imitation ; and is no 
other than what is called simpathy, which is the true 
ground of all our moral obligation. Thus " the ap- 
pearance of a cheerful countenance makes us cheerful, 
and of a dejected one, makes us sad." The notice of 
a person yawning, incites an appetency to act over 
the same movement ; and one yawn in company, is 
used to propogate its like through the whole group. 
There are certain parts of the system, which aptly 
repeat each other's motions. T'ne salivary glands run 
into a bri»k movement in consecution to that of the 
stomach after a full meal which excites the latter to 
more than ordinary action. The pancreas, also, is 
excited to increased action, in consequence of extra- 
ordinary stimulus on the salivary glands. Thers is 
that which is called reverse sympathy; when one part 
is excited to increased action by the decreased action 
or quiescence of another, and vice versa. So when 
from any obstruction, exhaustion of power, or want of 
stimulus, the stomach is quiescent or retrograde, the 
nerves of the head are affected with pain, which is but 
undue motion in those parts. This is not repeating 
the movement of another part, though it is imitating or 
following it in its changing one condition for another: 
but there is supposed to be that affinity in the consti- 
tutions of those separate parts of the body, which 
makes the affection of the one follow the affection of 
the other. When we behold in a fellow being, any 
part of his body wounded or disordered by some vio- 
lent application, we sustain a disagreeable feeling in 
the correspondent part of our own bodies. Nor is this 
altogether an imaginative idea : there is real motion 
in that correspondent part; motion of the same di- 
rections, more or less approximating an imitation of 
that which really exists in the limb that is actually af- 
fected. Something like this takes place also, when 
6 



62 



we have barely a recollection of such an object, or 
even a thought that rises by our imagination. When 
the cause of such sensitive fibrous movements having 
subsided, the perception to which they give rise, being 
afterwards re-excited by the power of memory, or 
Suggested by the trains of imagination, wherein we 
sympathize with reflected thoughts, and with those 
called passions, such as love, fear, anger, admiration, 
&c. the sympathy is of a more refined and elevated 
kind : when extended to the ideas of moral modes and 
relations, it may be called moral sympathy, and is 
what distinguishes the most sublime improved state 
of human nature. Sympathy is called a ' fellow feeling;' 
the same affection, feeling, movement, in one subject 
there is in another, taking place in consequence of its 
being in the other, excited by the perception, or 
thought that it exists in the other. This is the primo- 
geneal principle of society. This is the mystical 
thread designed by our Creator to hold individuals of 
species and kinds of percipient beings together, to 
preserve and reciprocate the enjoyment of existence; 
to bind them to mutual assistance, and to probity by 
making it impossible to be safe and tranquil without 
it. Without sympathy we should stand as friendless 
and defenceless as the scatter'd fern by the way side 
exposed to all the inclemencies of the elements. 
Without it, were no such thing as social happiness; 
and, in reference to our fellow creatures, no such thing 
as compunction. It is the soul of conscience. With- 
out this, a sense of moral right and wrong, would have 
no influence. But the concern of my present purpose 
is with voluntary imitation ; with such exertions as 
are consequent on volition. It plainly appears there 
is a genial aptitude in men, to imitate actions they see 
performed by their fellow creatures. The same apt- 
ness notoriously discriminates the ape kind : the Oran 
Outang is thought by naturaliets to approach, in point 



u 



of intelligence, as well as form ami moving, the near- 
est to the human species, of all other animals. It is 
thought that the fineness of their sense of touch, for 
which the structure of their hand similarly to the hu- 
man hand, is admirably fitted, is the mean whereby 
they reach'd their pre-eminence; touch being, of all 
the senses, the avenue to the greatest variety of ideas : 
solidity, extension, heat and cold, all finding admit- 
tance exclusively hereby. Of course, a finely formed 
and tangible hand, 'has been the greatest instrument 
of knowledge.' Reasoning from this ground, a cele- 
brated physiologer brings out a supposition that the 
human race sprang originally from a race of the Ape 
kind ; which had made great improvement by this 
sense, being distinguished by a particular smoothness 
and delicacy in their hand. And pursuing much far- 
ther, a thought that has some affinity to this, he comes 
to the conjecture that all intelligence emerged, gene- 
ratively, from one simple idea ; and that through a 
long progression of undistinguishable gradations, ad- 
vanced with successive experiments set out from an 
appetency to preserve existence, and continued by the 
perpetual impulsion of desire aiming at enlargement, 
accrue all the powers of the percipient world. But, 
however plausible such hypotheses may be rendered, 
they have little or no use in morality ; and although 
they may furnish an idle hour with speculations that 
entertain philosophic minds, yet they are not all re- 
commendable to be foisted into the moral teachings of 
youth. A proneness to imitate others is greater and 
more alert in youth than in any other age. Conse- 
quently, to be cautious in the examples we exhibit to 
those of whose Education we have the charge, is a re- 
quisition of utmost importance. This is a delicate 
part, which men's loose habits (compatible with very 
great accomplishments) are apt to overrule, and frus- 
trate the design of instruction. Seneca was persuad- 



64 



ed that youth is more apt to take good impressions 
than bad ones, when equally expos'd. I am inclined 
rather to believe this true, than the reverse proposi- 
tion. But the opinion I before quoted, example has 
greater efficiency than precept, to dispose the man, is 
so concurrent with all right reasoning and observa- 
tion, it seems none can harbor doubts of its truth. 
Every day's observation evinces that young persons 
are more prompt to copy examples which are put be- 
fore them, than they are to put in practice precepts 
without example. They are rather inclined to follow 
living patterns of manners than didactic rules, let 
them run ever so much in competition with each other : 
and the reasons are obvious : they love company, and 
think it honorable rather than strike into a path that 
Is not beaten. Again, it is naturally more easy to 
them to imitate what they see acted/ than acquire a 
habit of such movements as they never saw :— besides, 
they apprehend there is more pleasure in it too ; and 
the precedent has some authority to confirm them, in 
this particular : all this more especially, if their pat- 
tern comes from one whom they have been taught to 
respect and revere. 

Secure the respect of a youth by connecting in his 
mind the idea of dignity or wisdom with your person ; 
then set him patterns of such manners as you teach 
him to not follow, by ever so plausibly delivered and 
well supported precepts by reason ; you will find it 
impracticable to give him virtue. You will find him 
copying your manners in spite of all your doctrine. 
You corrupt, by this very procedure. You t<\ir down 
what you make pretence of building up. You go to 
blast the cause of morality. But if example concur 
with precept, it enforces it. Let example and precept 
coincide: these are the means which do execution. 
Let your doctrine explain, and your example corrobo- 
rate. It is the pattern that young persons look to, ra- 



65 

ther than the direction. There are innocent people of 
discretion who admiring the doctrine, seek improve- 
ment thereby, not moved by any contrasted accompa- 
niments: jet these, in time, are disgusted by the no- 
tice of such examples ; and sometimes there grows up 
thereout, a prejudice against moral teaching. There 
are public preachers who are addicted to pageantry, to 
luxury : nay, even those who are given to excessive 
drinking, to avarice, to calumny. The depravity of 
the public mind runs so far that it is even somewhere 
a receptory maxim that these characters cannot main- 
tain their dignity without splendor. But I cannot ad- 
vert to an instance of this kind more to be deprecated, 
perhaps, than in the character of teachers of schools. 
Young, gay, giddy, loose characters are too often em- 
ployed in conducting our common schools. This 
proves that universal derogation of morals, which cha- 
racterizes the commonalty of parents, who rate it a 
matter of indifference whether their youth be strictly 
impressed with regular precept and example or not. 
If this were not to them indifferent, they certainly 
would exert themselves to select such persons for this 
oflice, as are disposed to cultivate both, not only ; but 
would study to co-operate with these persons. In- 
stead of this, we find them, in almost every neighbor- 
hood, setting examples of rebellion against the autho- 
rity and prescepts of their teachers, shewing their 
children specimens of contempt, indignation, and as- 
persion of them. The tyro returning from his daily 
restraint, informs his tender indulgent parent he has 
been abused, has been insulted; the blockhead of a 
master struck him ! The parent flies in a rage ; opens 
a torrent of execration against the teacher, of whom 
he says all manner of diminutive things in the ears of 
the child, who is now inspired with indignation at his 
instructor, for whom he shakes off all respect, and de- 
lights in pursuing retaliatory schemes of eneroach- 
*6 



60 



ment and insult. He comes to despise the man who 
teaches him useful arts ; and this prepares his heart 
for the most malignant ingratitude. The parent, not 
constraining him to obedience of his moral commands 
at home, tears him from his fealty to a master; that 
there may be no shadow of authority over him ! 

From this moment the tyro is in a worse condition 
than if he had no master at all ; for, having the appear- 
ance of two masters, he must naturally either hate the 
one and love the other, or cleave to the one and des- 
pise the other. This also is setting an example of 
condemning without examination, and of reproaching 
and traducing those whom we ought to respect and 
endear. A pupil ought to revere his instructor, for 
two reasons. One is, it is impossible for him to make 

Eroficiency in learning, by the lessons of one whom he 
ates ; and another is, the instructor deserves the es- 
teem ant; gratitude of those whom he initiates in the 
principles of useful knowledge. 

After all, the world will be found full of bad exam- 
ples. Coming into the world, the emerging tyro not 
judiciously fortified by well impressed principles and 
thorough habits in morality, inevitably meets with ex- 
amples of all manner of vices, to whose pernicious in- 
fluence he is artlessly open, to be blown up with pride, 
lust, ambition, revenge, profligacy. He meets with his 
coevals and his seniors on the one hand, and his juniors 
on the other, alluring him with patterns of profanity, 
intemperance, lasciviousness, contention, oppression, 
abuse. The examples exhibited by neighbors and 
companions, are at last, the great enemy to be guarded 
against, with alert scrupulosity. Their seducing insi- 
nuations are hardly to be resisted without preliminary 
habits of speculative virtue deeply established. From 
this very consideration, it behooves every parent to be 
specially attentive to the morals of his children. It 
behooves every one who has the care of young minds, 



67 

to maintain a serious vigilence over the progressive 
rise of habits of thinking and acting, which must dis- 
criminate their character: that, by early nurture, he 
may radicate such principles as will countermine all 
conspiracies against social happiness; and make them 
proof against ihe stratagems of such subtle and horrid 
adversaries. To be fortified against the delusive ten- 
dency of vicious example, by early insinuation of 
sound maxims, is the greatest blessing human society 
is heir to. This is the great point Lulu cation should 
labor at. Yet how deplorably short we fall of it ! 
The burden of the account must fall upon parents, for 
the following reasons. 

I. People having had the pleasures and pains of 
bringing upon the stage of life, children, to add to the 
community of civilized mankind, who are to sustain 
characters either good or bad, whom also they design 
to be actors on this stage in certain capacities, trades, 
and relations, where they shall be able to do good and 
hurt to their fellow creatures, are under a fourfold 
obligation to endue them with good social qualities : 
obligation to themselves, to their Maker, to their chil- 
dren, and to the community whereof they are mem- 
bers. The parent's own enjoyment of existence de- 
pends final! jf, in a great measure on this , and certain- 
ly he can never rationally expect to partake the fruits 
of filial gratitude unless he implants its principles in 
their breasts. Our Maker is not more honored and 
obeyed by any other conduct than by rearing and 
training children to virtuous manners, and by sedu- 
lously expanding and ennobling those faculties where- 
with he hath endued them. Surely our heavenly Fa- 
ther must take delight in seeing those whom he de- 
sign'd for society and perpetual preservation, multi- 
plying and progressing towards that point of perfec- 
tion he had marked down for them to approximate. 
Again, their children's fate depends greatly hereon. 



68 



Their enjoyment as social rationnls, depends upon a 
sedulous nurture, a careful discipline of their parts and 
powers, in the tenderness of their infancy. Impres- 
sions stamped then, will endure through life. Fur- 
thermore, the interest of the community, is very much 
concerned herewith. When men are governed as 
they ought to be, (by themselves) by persons of iheir 
own choice ; the government takes its character from 
the general sense of the people; which is according to 
the degree of improvement their natural powers have 
pjot ; the degree of civilization they have attained ; the 
degree of light has been superinduced to their capaci- 
ties : all which results as the event of early inculca- 
tion, which is in the hands of others. If Education be 
neglected, if Education be debased, the society gradu- 
ally falls to a state of anarchy Meanwhile evil dis- 
posed individuals are pests and torments, in a commu- 
nity, to others who are well disposed. 

2d. It is in the power of parents to set examples 
which have great influence. Parents command great 
influence on their children. Their examples and 
treatment have insuperable efficiency. It is in the 
power of parents to bias their children to good morals 
with greater ease than any other party can do it. It 
requires but theirselves to know and love good morals, 
and to search out the fit means to produce such an 
effect in the young. 

3d. Children more readily learn of their parents 
and nurses than of any other party. They are wont 
to copy the manners, ^ords, and ways of thinking, 
used by their parents. All the world refers the weak 
unadvised youth to his parents. If he mistep,— is 
this your breeding ? Is this what your parents incul- 
cated ? Is the general cry. 

Parents, study, then, your part. The weight of the 
obligation incumbent on you, is serious. You say it 
is a hard task. What makes it hard ? Is it not want 



69 

of knowledge of natural causes, that makes it appear 
so ? J\ hard, a difficult task, you say, in a depraved 
world ! True, it is a difficult task, in a depraved 
world : but it is not less a duty for being difficult:. 
Countermine this depnavM world by speculation and 
art. The depravity of the world, necessitates a deeper 
plot. Even the corruption of the world, shall refine 
morality. The whole secret of the business you have 
to do, lies in association of ideas. Associate in these 
young minds, pleasure with what is good to be done ; 
then, the remainder of your work is plain and easy. 
For if pleasure accompany the impression of the first 
notices hereof which you introduce to their apprehen- 
sion, those ideas never will re occur but they bring 
that pleasure along with them, unless the connection 
be superseded by some superior and overbearing im- 
pression that substitutes a different association. Af- 
terwards, as the faculties gradually advance to matu- 
rity, this should be followed with argumentative lec- 
tures, which disclose the tendency and consequences 
of moral actions, and the importance of the social vir- 
tues. But more of this hereafter. Suffer me to add a 
few words relative to some specimens of example. 
"Without example of the use of books by the authors of 
their first pleasures, recommending it to children, they 
will not get an inclination to the use of books, and con- 
sequently, a love of letters. Nor will this important 
principle be likely to get its root without an exempli- 
fication of some delight and satisfaction found by the 
parent or nurse in the use of books, and of a choice 
estimate of them as if they were reckoned worth pre- 
serving with care. Obsequious to the alluring influence 
of such example, the supple observers become imita- 
tively assimilated to such an auspicious model of man- 
ners. Also, if we would have children respect a 
teacher, we ourselves must, in our manner, exemplify 
a respectful estimate of his character and t profession, 



ro 

This respect must be exempli fie J by a co-operating 
with him in his adopted process of culture. It is first 
necessary to approve the system of discipline and in- 
struction adopted by such one as we do employ to 
educate our children, and then to co-operate with him 
in the measures he uses. It is seldom possible for a 
tutor to form the moral character of a child without a 
co-operation of its parent or nurse, with him, in the 
means to that end. Their anterior, pre-established, 
and prevailing influence, will otherwise perpetually 
undo all that he can do ; and pull down as fast as he 
builds up. The parent must concur in enforcing the 
same prescepts and doctrine ; or the tutor cannot suc- 
ceed to form the character of the child, whether intel- 
lectual or moral. Whatever its teacher may say or 
do to a child, it never will respect that teacher, if its 
parent speaks diminutively of him. When the parent 
or nurse contemns the teacher, the child will not res- 
pect him. These are general truths of the ordinary 
course of things. People are not aware of the odious 
habits that have arisen out of those things which have 
been employed merely as expedients to pacify chil- 
dren; such examples as crimination, reproach, partia- 
lity, revenge, and nugacity, often finding an effective 
presentment in this medium, beyond the observance of 
those who produce them : and we little think that, by 
imitating their parents to the utmost of children's per- 
ception of an imitable model presented them by thore 
they are wont to look to as standards, these children 
are contracting those very habits that we insensibly 
are exercising in those communications we are mak- 
ing use of to destroy others in them: thus we are not 
apt to suspect they are acquiring a habit of scolding, 
from our rebuking them. 



71 



CHAPTER IV. 

Of remissness in the impression and inculcation of 
principles. 

I imagine my reader will begin to suspect me to be 
one of those false lights that would lead him round in 
a perpetual circle ,• and be ready to infer from what I 
am proposing to go about, that instead of advancing 
him forward towards his journey's end, I am but now 
conducting him upon ground he has just before trod- 
den, where I am bringing into view what has been re- 
peatedly had under examination in some preceding 
chapters : but the main design in each of those, lying 
another way ; what 1 have hinted concerning princi- 
ples, 1 would improve by a more deliberate inspection 
of what they immediately depend on, and are consti- 
tuted by. Having treated of the unreserved omission 
of an important business incumbent on men, through 
mere indolence, or other disparageing causes, 1 go to 
expatiate upon another fault somewhat diverse from 
this; which is when men having set professedly about 
the prosecution of a given design, wherein they in- 
stanced all genuine marks of intention, do the thing 
by halves: go over it with a slightness, from a feeling 
of indifferency with regard to the event. These, if 
they go through the exterior accessary ceremonials, 
cheerfully pass off with a persuasion that their task is 
done; never ascertaining the effect; which, in the 
matter of making impressions on the memory, or su- 
perinducing any habit or quality to any other faculty,, 
is verv essential. The application may be so slight 
as to not produce a sufficient impression to continue 



■ 2 



perceptible. It may not be accompanied by such othci 
ideas as fix it in the memory by making its recurrence 
incident. It may not be repeated sufficiently to rivet 
it strongly in the memory Pleasure, pain, and repe- 
tition, are the most efficient aids to infix ideas in the 
memory. When we say in the memory (speaking of 
it as of a place) we mean only that they are made lia- 
ble to re-appear; being fixed within the power of 
recollection, or within the possibility of being remem- 
bered : which is no other than joining them toother 
ideas, to a greater or less number and variety; anji the 
business of repetition is to connect an idea with various 
others. Every time an idea is repeated, it is associa- 
ted with a different idea, either discriminating the time 
or place or some other particular ; so that there are so 
many chances, so many possibilities of a re-occurrence 
as each of those connections. Because each of these 
ideas wherewith the other was joined, may bring this 
with it whenever it occurs; and this, in fact, is a man- 
ner of committing an idea to so many keepers, win )h 
is almost always sure to be found with one or other of 
them. So wont are fibres to move together, which 
have once moved together. If I would make impres- 
sion of the idea of a certain drawing, upon the mind 
of a painter, who is to limn it without the convenience 
of either original or visible pattern, I would give him a 
view of it in different places. I would repeat the im- 
pression of the thing upon his senses in several situa- 
tions ; that, taking a curious survey of every part at 
his leisure, the whole might be found to be (as it were) 
woven in with sometimes one prospect and sometimes 
another : I wouid particularly let it connect itself with 
several individual objects that are apt to excite surprise 
or admiration : sometimes, for example, let it be joined 
with the idea of a curious tree ; sometimes with that 
of a rare fruit, a horse, a singular bird ; again, with 
same antique appendage ot the way ; and, sometime s 



73 

with interesting ideas brought up in discourse ;— that, 
(in a retrospect,) whichever way he turns the eye of his 
mind, he can not fail of effecting a recollection of his 
model 

Pain has equal efficiency with pleasure, to fix ideas 
in the power of recollection. A great degree of pain 
catenated with any idea or scene of ideas, renders 
their reminiscence easily accessible Likewise any 
novel affection, or perception, concomitating any idea, 
fixes it in memory. Attention is necessary, still, to 
facilitate recollection : the efficiency of this is done by 
producing a particular habitude with certain distin- 
guished feelings which become associated with what is 
desired to be retained . A ttention, repetition, pleasure, 
and pain, are our chief aids of memory These are 
the grand instrumental means of strengthening the 
memory, and perpetuating a reserve of knowledge 

Without digressing any farther, — men, I say, are 
addicted to a slackness in impressing and inculcating 
principles. There are who go about it as a duty ; but 
they go not heartily : so that either through ignorance 
or disaffection, they make not the application with 
sufficient energy to make such a deep and affecting 
impression as will prevail over all succeeding engage- 
ments of attention. The word principle has various 
uses. In one sense it signifies an essential constituent 
of a thing, without which that thing could not be. So, 
the chymists make the principles of certain bodies 
(or of all bodies) to be several species of particles dis- 
tinguished by their shape and motion. Sometimes it 
is taken for a determinate, prevailing, and steady 
cause : at other times, and perhaps very commonly it 
means the final cause. Again ; it signifies a proposi- 
tion, whether self-evident or otherwise received to be 
true, by which several other propositions that are 
more particular, are proved. Such are the axioms of 
the mathematicians ; and the dogmas of the moralists. 

7 



74 

But it is sometimes taken for such a persuasion or 
posture of mind as induces it to determine on such a 
course as it does pursue; whether it be opinion or 
what arises from any other affection, ^nd it is in a 
sense very like this, that I here make use of the word. 
The result of sensation and reflection, is ideas These 
are called ideas of sensation and ideas of reflection. 
When an impression comes immediately from an ex- 
ternal object, it is an idea of sensation. When it is 
revived by remembrance or recollection, or formed by 
the relation or aspect of any of the other ideas that are 
or have been in the mind, considered comparatively, 
in any point of view, it is an idea of reflection. Mow, 
what principles are, in infancy, if they be any thing, 
are such connections (called associations) of some par- 
ticular ones with other of these ideas, whereby they 
are accustomed to obey one common exciting cause, 
or be suggested one by other, as give certain direc- 
tions and degrees to the passions, and gradually tend 
to peculiar habits of thinking. The way that these 
operate as principles in the soul of man, is by involv- 
ing in their connection, objects that move desire: 
whereby, the prevailing desire being wont to accompa- 
ny or follow a certain appearance, this becomes a go- 
verning motive to the will, habitually determining it 
to pursue one thing or to avoid another ; which when 
it does steadily as a settPd cause, it is aptly enough 
called a principle. Now these sorts of principles may 
be either good or bad. When I say they may be 
either good or bad, I mean they may be so, only as 
causes. They may be causes of good or bad determi- 
nations : for it is as motives ; as causes of different 
determinations i. e. determinations on good or bad 
actions, that these become good or bad principles, in 
the concern of morality. The wrong may be prevent- 
ed, and the good can be promoted, in very early in- 
fancy. It is important to establish such as have a 



direct tendency to favor the practice of benignant de- 
terminations. 

Principles, then, so far as concerned in morality, 
are all those ideas, propositions, combinations of ideas, 
or relations of ideas, that in themselves become de- 
terminate causes of habitual courses of voluntary con- 
duct whether in thinking or perceptible moving. Of 
the relations of ideas amongst themselves, one 01 which 
I have been speaking is association of them. Asso- 
ciation of ideas, is one of the relations or habitudes 
they have among themselves one to other, that does 
the most execution in the province I am speaking of. 
These associations arise from various causes; the 
chief of which, are the following: 

I. Mere chance may make two or more conceptions 
happen to immediately succeed each other, or be ex- 
cited at the same moment of time, which thereupon 
are afterwards more incident ; and more liable to ap- 
pear together, than others which never had been ob- 
served so nearly assembled. 

II. Co existence. Some ideas are naturally allied 
together: i. e. the causes that excite them, are united 
in one subject: as the whiteness and roundness of a 
snowball, the heat and colour of flame, the weight, 
colour, and ductility of gold. Such are all those qua- 
lities of substance, that cohere in rerum natura : and 
not only these, but also other things, that are not thus 
constitutionally united, are yet eminently apt/to ap- 
pear or operate simultaneously, or else to follow one 
another as by causation. v 7 

III. Voluntary determination. Out of-choice we 
institute the connection of two or more ideas, aufd for 
some known purpose determine them to be suggested 
one by another, whether in our own minds orhKth.056 
we instruct Thus we endeavor to associate With -the "r 
idea of the name * God,' in the minds of childreripthe j 
ideas of justice, goodness, wisdom, power, and infini- 




76 

iy. We endeavor also to associate the blandishments 
of address, with our admonitions and injunctions. 

Principles, in their metaphysical and moral use, 
resolve themselves into four sorts There are four 
sorts of principles used to be considered proper to be 
inculcated on the minds of those of whom we have the 
charge to form their characters ; viz : literary, scien- 
tific^!, moral, and mechanical. By literary principles 
I mean those ideas, combinations of ideas, relations of 
ideas, and propositions, from which follow the proprie- 
ty of language and reasoning, and which are the im- 
mediate instruments of all knowledge that is acquired 
by the use of books and characters ; these are the rudi- 
ments of what is called rational philosophy. 

Scientifical principles are those self-evident axioms 
and intuitive views of reality by which the structures 
of the sciences are tested, and which are directories in 
the forming of theories. Upon these rest the mathe- 
matics, and whatsoever consists of demonstrative 
knowledge, whether it relate to number, extension, 
motion, or any other incident of substance. But the 
use of these supposing a mature state of the faculties, 
when, if the agent have been but set right in the im- 
pression of literary and moral principles, he is in little 
danger of being deluded by any obscurity about these, 
I shall leave aside the consideration of scientifical 
principles any farther than they are essentially con- 
cerned in the other, since it is with literary, moral, and 
mechanical principles, which the common people have 
chiefly to do, anci wherein they are mostly deficient. 
Moral principles are those combinations or relations of 
ideas, propositions, or persuasions of mind, which are 
entertained and admitted as governing motives to de- 
termine the general course of our voluntary conduct, 
as it respects other conscious beings to which we stand 
in a relation that makes us capable of affecting them. 
These are those persuasions and maxims, which con- 



p 

cern us in all times and places, as directories to con- 
duct, in society and solitude, for the attainment of 
happiness. There is a sort of these moral principles* 
which may be called speculative, which consist of 
knowledge or persuasion of mind that such or such 
things ought to be done, and others ought not to be 
done, in consequence of certain tendencies, relations, 
or operations of things, known or believed to exist ; 
which propositions, the truth of which is so known or 
believed, are, so far as they have influence over our 
choice and determination upon any sort of action, mo- 
ral principles also. These speculative principles, 
though they are reasons of conduct, are not consider- 
ed as operating causes, and are thus distinguished 
from active principles. A pure active principle of this 
kind, consists of 

1. An idea of a certain action or sort of action in 
one's power to do. 

2. Delight or pain associated with that idea. 

3. An idea of the beneficent or hurtful tendency of 
that action 

4. A prevailing desire to practice that action, ari- 
sing from the acknowledged excellence of that action j 
or, a prevailing aversion from the practice of that ac- 
tion, arising out the evident vileness or unfitness of it. 

This is a moral principle in its utmost develope- 
inent. Any habitual course or mode of action, whe- 
ther mental or corporeal, spoken of as a quality in the 
abstract, of which the principle is the constant motive, 
it is said to be the principle of ; as the principle of 
integrity, and of constancy. And these settled habi- 
tual ways, in their turn, are in themselves considered 
as principles also ; principles of active life, that are the 
modelling springs of general character. Thus we say, 
the principle of stability : but stability itself is a prin- 
ciple, in one view ; i. e. it is a constant cause of a 
uniform and moderate course of action in public life* 

#7 



78 

Mechanical principles are those ideas, maxims, and 
deductions of reason, concerning the properties of 
bodies, from which are drawn the proper rules and 
prescripts of those mechanic arts and trades that we 
use for subsistence, and by which the secrets of them 
are explained. 

I shall notice a remissness in respect to each of 
these. 

I. Literary. Men are slack in impressing rudiments 
of literature. The first principle of this sort, is a let- 
ter. The forms and uses of letters or literal charac- 
ters, are indispensable to be fix'd in the mind before 
there can be any use of such characters, as vehicles of 
other ideas. Effectual methods are not used to pro- 
duce this. Pleasure is not attached to the first notices 
of these things. Nor is there sufficient vigilence ex- 
tended over the treatment these ideas receive from the 
untutored understanding ; the entertainment they get, 
whether attention or neglect; whether they are no- 
ticed cursorily and then passed by and avoided for a 
long interim wherein evolve more exciting objects ; or 
made the chief entertainment of the understanding, 
by reason of the greatest proportion of the agent's en- 
joyment being associated herewith in the first inter- 
view. This is a delicate piece of business, which 
requires attention. It is not for a parent to consider 
bis children, altogether as little amusing delighting 
gifts of Heaven, that will, by and by, spontaneously 
grow into discretion and virtue, as their bodies grow 
in bulk ; but there is a task which is his serious duty 
to attend to, to modify these intelligences with cer- 
tain principles which shall be motives to actions; be- 
fore he can reasonably expect to realize the fruits of 
such qualities More particular care is required in 
impressing the principles of literature because letters, 
hooks, and grammar rules, are such objects as to a 
child are void of all manner of charms. The incipient 



exercise of the mind about these, brings nothing along 
with it, naturally, that delights. The consequences 
are greatly delightful ; but the outset must be sooth'd 
with artful combinations which will bias. Instead of 
this, we frequently find the laboring parent (cherish- 
ing a most repressive contrast at his home) shifting 
this task upon a public tutor abroad. But a tutor can 
effectually do nothing to a child without the concur- 
rence of the parent : if the child be at home with his 
nurses and parents eighteen hours in twenty-four ; in 
the name of common sense, by what necromantic ma- 
chinery shall a tutor in the remaining six hours learn 
him anv thing contrary to what he is taught at home, 
or make pleasing to him the reverse of what he is made 
to find pleasure in there? The parent is prompt to 
give injunctions in form:— 'you must learn your let- 
ters' — " you must l^arn those rules'— you shall learn : 
you must not fail to study — you must obey your 
teacher," &c. But all this is not sufficient. There 
must be the idea of reward ; there must be example ; 
and finally there must be a time (and it possible ]et 
this be the conjuncture of the first acquaintance with 
these objects) when the child's most pleasing prospect 
accompanies these b eas ; when the scene of instruc- 
tion is an aflfectingly or peculiarly pleasing scene. 
The intellectual faculties derive energy from the sub- 
ject of entertainment. The energy of the soul of man 
faithfully bears upon any resource which yields enter- 
tainment. Without this, there can be no attachment 
to letters: no aptitude to fix attention on that sort of 
objects. 

II. Men are no less slack about radicating moral 
principles. Obedience to parents, docility, gratitude, 
temperance, stability, and integrity, are the most im- 
portant of the first moral principles fit to be establish- 
ed in t e youn r. Instead of obedience, some seem to 
go. about to teach disobedience : and they do this by 



80 



indulging their young in such courses as are directly 
repugnant to the parents' own desires and advice. 
What avails it to advise^ or enjoin my son one thing, 
when straightway I gratify him in a reverse inclina- 
tion. It avails this, >hat he conies to slight my com- 
mands and my advice, and to view me as a subject of 
insignificance. After this, he is likely to become my 
master. 

If you would have your son obey you, set him an 
example of a sort of obedience to yourself, by adhering 
to your own deliberate resolutions; not pitching upon 
one course to day, reversing your plan to morrow, the 
third day taking into the very contrary course, and 
the next day into a different one still ; such veering 
makes him aptly conclude that you yourself not 
regarding your own counsel, is matter of little moment 
whether he follows it or not ; or rather, that it is no 
how eligible. This, again, sets you upon a foot of 
insignificance. If you would have your son grateful, 
set him an example of gratitude, by expression of a 
gratetul sense, acknowledgement, and due return, of 
benefits received from your own patrons and benefac- 
tors. Neither is this all. Some pathetic lecturing is 
yet requisite to be administered, to confirm those who 
are any way exposed to the corruption of adverse ex- 
ample. The other virtues follow the sa?ne rule. All 
are more confirmed by example than by any other aid. 
If with the best instructions we continually join ex- 
ample of levity, we shall hardly fix any principle what- 
ever, unless it be that of duplicity. An example of 
levity is the capital clog that encumbers the inculca- 
tion of virtuous principles in young minds : and herein 
it is, that men of the world fail : their own passions 
hold the ascendency over the consideration they have 
of Education. The social virtues are of the greatest 
concernment. The social virtues are what finish hu- 
man nature. The whole principle of these, is com- 



81 



prchended in the idea of philanthropy. Let the senti- 
ment of philanthropy once get place in the growing 
mind, the whole circle of the social virtues obsequious- 
ly attends this resplendant emanation of the divini- 
ty. Philanthropy must need imply the true essential 
principles of all the social virtues, for it comprehends 
in the object it embraces, the whole scope of all good 
purposes, wishes, and thoughts, so far as they regard 
the human species. It is the vital primordial of bene- 
volence, charity, hospitality, justice, gratitude, forgive- 
ness, and patriotism. For it is but by dint of some 
degree of love or esteem, that we are ever impulsed to 
do that good to our fellow creatures which we wish to 
have them do to us; unless we be under external con- 
straint. This has for its end, the good of all mankind. 
Although we cannot expect to find or infix this senti- 
ment of philanthropy, in its full amplitude and extent, 
in the infant breast, yet we may approximate it. 
The steps to be taken, most likely to *nake this ap- 
proximation in the adolescent frame, are to repress 
emotions of anger, envy, hatred, &c. ; and to repeat 
those of love, pity, remorse, serene pleasure, and com- 
placency. In short, philanthropy is but an improve- 
ment of that natural sympathy which enters into the 
composition of all percipient beings. By docility is 
meant an ingenuous openness to conviction and a 
prompt auscultation to the directory communications 
of such as may afford instruction or improvement. 
This is promoted by what makes the temper mild, and 
represses all the harsh humors in the system: it is 
also subserved by associating serene pleasure with 
whatsoever is wont to fasten and engross the attention, 
or is capable of exciting intenseness of intellectual 
application. Gratitude is one of the loveliest traits 
the character of the adolescent mind, can exhibit. The 
elicitation of this, comprehends filial affection and obe- 
dience. When we once get this principle established. 




8a 

filial obedience naturally follows it as a necessary ef- 
fect. This principle is confirmed by reflection. Its 
perfection depends on cultivation of sympathy. There- 
fore the earlier we can inure the young to the practice 
of reflection, and reasoning on the feelings of their pa- 
rents and other benefactors, with a notice of the rela- 
tions they stand in, to them ; the more we shall acce- 
lerate this qualification. Moreover, the same physical 
causes that subserve the other principles, are propiti- 
ous to the grounding of this. But the greatest princi- 
ple, the climax of ail principles that can be introduced 
into the heart of childhood or youth, is integrity. 
This substantially dignifies human nature. It in- 
cludes in it the essence of sincerity, equity, probity, 
punctuality, charity, and hospitality. The child that 
has this principle, will not disobey his parents' or 
teachers' reasonable commands; will not waste or 
misapply his time ; will not deceive ; will not disre- 
spect his teachers , will not do irreverence to aged 
persons or strangers ; will not turn averse from the 
relief of the indigent ; will not insult or ridicule the 
deformed. Fortitude and patience also, are generally 
adjuncts of this;— which are of themselves two im- 
portant principles, and are surprizingly generated by 
earlj denials, privations, and trials of hardship. Ad- 
versity is the school where these are nursed with 
peculiar effect; and herein indigent parents may 
improve their misfortunes into, the greatest of bles- 
sings. 

III. This slackness prevails, to a certain extent, in 
mechanical Education. The children of this world, 
terminating their views in immediate gain, are content 
to shirk along by any means, and execute their work 
by any rude measures that secure this object It is a 
greater point with them to get the advantage of times 
and people than to adjust the application of their ruies 
to their true principles, and finish their work accord- 



83 



ing to the original ends of these ; and what they deem 
most interesting to themselves, they are wont to teach 
to those of their apprentices and dependants, whose 
welfare they have at heart. 

IV. People also are neglectful of implanting true 
principles of science. They deem it a matter of in- 
difference whether they furnish the minds of their 
children with true determinate and distinct ideas of 
the qualities and powers of substances, or not. Some- 
times these are shamefully deluded, when they are 
young about natural causes. From the age of five, to 
nine, children's curiosity is generally very alert; and 
they eagerly seek after a train of causation. They 
importunately ask a multitude of questions concerning 
the beginnings and relations of natural beings that fall 
in their way ; to which the parent often gives evasive 
answers, and sometimes very fallacious ones. It is 
better to make no reply at all, than to imprint false 
ideas of qualities or causes : since, what impressions 
they take at this time of life, are to have great effect. 
As dilatorily and vaguely are the ideas of quantity 
usually infused, in their early years. 

The reasons wherefore men are so generally remiss 
and lax in the matter gf fixing in the minds of others, 
certain correct principles, I suppose to be the follow- 
ing : 

1. Discredit, Theirselves not making any use of 
principles, people think these not of due consequence, 
to be worthy of their attention. This is a fault very 
much marks men of the world. They confine them- 
selves to no certain prescripts of moral principles; 
governed by selfish maxims, whatever happens at any 
time to be most conducive to the eclat, wealth, or 
pleasure, of each one's own self, they are used to prac- 
tice ; and* not only to practice, but to recommend by 
their conversation, to those whom they regard with 
sympathetic concern. Now, what a man reckons of 




84 



no moment; what he conceives not essential to the 
support of his own enjoyment, cannot be reasonably 
expected he will consider necessary for him 10 incul- 
cate in others, to perfect what he deems a good and 
sufficient Education. Hence, to substantiate a true 
directory principle is not, in their esteem sufficiently 
urgent and important to incite them to go about it in 
earnest. But this is not the worst ; from the same 
cause, they come to hate such principles. They are 
averse to the incumbrance of exact principles, i am 
here speaking of moral and literary principles. These 
same people, I say, are inimical to good principles. A 
real hatred of what is good, is an alarming disorder in 
those who are influential in the Education of others. 
What may one expect of the Education of a drunk- 
ard's or gambler's children ? What may one expect 
of a jockey's family? All those who labor under any 
flagrant disorder of mind ; under the tyranny of any 
excessive passion or vice, are not in a fit plight to edu- 
cate others in morals. 

2. Indolence. Men are too lazy to emphatically 
inculcate principles. Men are too fond of ease io be 
given to that intenseness in voluntary thinking, requi- 
site for the instillation of judicious principles. It hap- 
pens that exercises of mind are more against the grain 
of slothful men than any other sort of exercise. We 
never find one who is alert in study, attention, reason- 
ing, or composition, impatient of tabor. People, there- 
fore, although they are told it is their duty, and are 
sensible of it too, to attend to the establishment of 
clear influential principles, in the minds of their otf- 
spring at least, yet going about something may have the 
appearance of it, to bias their neighbours into a favora- 
ble estimate of their dispositions, cannot confine them- 
selves to see the finishing of their work. 

3 Ignorance, People are ignorant of the proper 
measures and methods to be pursued, to this end. 



85 

Some are ignorant both of the nature of the principles 
themselves, and of the fit ways to instil them. This 
ignorance is the case of thousands, of whom we are not 
aware: these are respected and popular. They are 
versed in the rules of decorum common in their socie- 
ty ; and, being prompt in their practice and teaching 
of these, appear to be persuaded that this is the com- 
pass of what concerns them in morality, all other im- 
portant matters being handed them by the priests, or 
public preachers. 

This prevails in mechanic arts. Many a man has 
taught himself more in six months time than he had 
acquired by an apprenticeship of seven years 

4. Craft Public preachers are shy of establishing 
the principles of morals, lest they should overset their 
machinery of theology. They are shy of instating the 
true principles of morality on the ground of physical 
knowledge, by calling into exertion in the young the 
faculty of reasoning, lest they sap the foundation of 
that system of faith and mystery by which they are 
accustomed to subsist. Monarchs lay plans to prevent 
the diffusion of knowledge. Their thrones are built 
upon ignorance and delusion : it therefore subserves 
their policy, to slight and to impede the inculcatk<ii of 
literary principles. One would think that a p< . *on 
who never got the rudiments of literature, could make 
no proficiency in other departments of knowledge and 
art. He, however, acquires knowledge, in proportion 
to the extent of his observation and experiments: and 
what little he does attain to, is substantial and last- 
ing ; for he is apt to retain it in his memory. 

feasors of mechanic and other arts, avoid initia- 
tlrrg their apprer^ces in the highest excellences of 
the> 'rades, that' they may not. when they set i-p bu- 
siness for themselves, encroach upon theu^infLienGe. 
•is, apprehensive of tliwir apprentices rnaki igen- 
iments upon their custom, are niggardly otin- 
8 




86 



struction : from the same consideration they go to pre- 
vent their forming connections in their neighborhood. 
But one of the most odious and malignant forms this 
craft appears in, and where it has the least pretence 
to vindication, is that of a free enlightened republican 
bringing up a slave or drudge without principles. 
When people get to that height of pride, that they 
reckon it a reflection on them for their inferiors or 
servants to possess true moral principles, it is a con- 
clusive argument that theirselves have none. Yet this 
is a usual custom with private families,^ ho to the dis- 
grace of human nature, are tolerated in buying and 
selling human flesh. But these very rationally ap- 
prehend that true principles prevailing in these 
drudges, would, in progress, inevitably make their 
masters objects of indignation and contempt. 

I shall close this chapter with a view of the conse- 
quences of this remissness The consequences of this, 
1 appehend, are these : 

First. If we consider principles as a sort of ballast 
to the soul, we shall find that without these, the mind 
being adrift, as it were, at random, liable at every mo- 
ment to every degree of perturbation, confusion, sus- 
pense, and anxiety, gives us a notion not very unlike 
that of a ship on the sea without rudder or compass. 
The soul of man is in absolute need of something to 
rest upon and to steady her amidst diverse incitements 
and examples : something whereunto she can (in a 
manner) call up all her wandering wishes, festinate 
counsels, aims, plans, and multivious pursuits, and 
happily bring them to a test by which they may be 
conscientiously squared, and determined in a way that 
consists with permanent satisfaction. Let me have a 
final cause to my whole course. Why do I suffer 
myself to ,be actuated by such motives ? Why do I 
pursue such an object? Why do I practice such 
means ? Why do I strike into such divers ways ? Let 



87 

me be able to account for all this on some clear, pre- 
vailing principle, that determines me herein. The 
earlier minds are qualified with these, the better. A 
youth may go wild to the sixteenth year, it is then 
more difficult to principle him aright, because ycu have 
at least to unprinciple him, that he be divested of 
those false, corrupt, or immoral principles, which may 
have become habitually operative in him ; besides, he 
may have a principle of levity so deeply rooted as 
scarce to be eradicated. 

Secondly, Youth not having been strictly princi- 
pled, and restrained to the path of rectitude in the 
years of their ductility, become in general, slack in 
regard to principles, and teach the reverse of virtue. 
People are apt to copy after their progenitors with a 
degree of reverence, in some particular things which 
they either dont much value, or dont understand : so 
that one generation being remiss, the next is so with 
greater confidence and dignity. 

Thirdly. It is injurious to the community. Un- 
principled } r oung men do more execution towards the 
aggravation and spread of vice, than all other means 
put together. There arises a general derogation and 
disregard of all moral maxims. Sincerity, probity, 
stability, become buts of ridicule. This is an evil that 
is alarming in a community, to all good men and de- 
fenders of the cause of morality, when the principles 
of the greatest excellences of human nature, are 
brought to be objects of burlesque. Not that mirth is 
incompatible with those: a good man, perchance, may 
be no less merry than virtuous; but it is dangerous 
working those into the subjects of our mirth. Stabili- 
ty, integrity, and sincerity, are fundamental principles 
essential to the subsistence of all other morals. For 
without those a man is an abandoned wretch, or a mi- 
nister of vice. In whom we find no trace of either of 




88 



those, we find a specimen of a depraved creature in- 
deed. 

Fourthly, Education is harder and more difficult in 
consequence of a remissness in this particular,. Edu- 
cation is impracticable to be completed without these. 
Not only in literature, lies great difficulty in the want 
of early principles; but all parts of the work, are 
doubly laborious Whether 1 teach or learn, princi- 
ples make my work easier. If I lay out a garden, and 
have on my mind an exact impression of the whole 
diagram of what I go about to produce, also of the par- 
ticular steps and courses I am to take, one after ano- 
ther, to complete my process ; and have a common 
post to which to return at every circuit, and from 
which to make all my emergences; my work is plain 
and easy : without these, my labor were, comparative- 
ly, without end ; running into a maze of perplexity. 
The same thing holds good in the cultivation of hu- 
man nature as in the cultivation of the earth. The 
forming of a good mind is analogous to the making and 
dressing of a garden ; and it is a likeness in these 
ideas, which has given rise to the application of the 
words cultivate, culture, cultivation, to the idea of 
teaching or incutcuting. 

Fifthly. It destroys domestic happiness in families. 
It is laying a broad foundation of family brawls and 
disagreements. Whereas, if the members of a family 
-while young, be carefully impressed with principles of 
filial obedience, gratitude, and fraternal affection, not 
all the powers of the world could draw them into a 
wrangling contention between themselves: they would 
sooner seperate, at the prill o£ perishing. Such habits 
of thinking, such attachments, grow out of those esta- 
blished principle*, as fail not to give peace and happi- 
ness to the circle. It is a subject of pity that we have 
not example more frequent, to corroborate this. 



89 



TAUT III. 

Of remedies for the abuses and defects 
in Education. 



CHAPTER I. 

Of circumspection on the incipient progression of 
the understanding. 

Physicians make use of two sorts of remedies : that 
which prevents disorders, and that which cures them. 
Some diseases, which cannot be cured when they have 
once got hold of the constitution, may yet be prevent- 
ed by the seasonable application of some medicament 
or regimen before they come on. The same holds 
good in regard to disorders ot the mind, as well as 
those of the body. Indeed the civil authority of a 
community, is sometimes requisite in cases of the for- 
mer of these. I shall, on the present occasion exhibit 
a preventative : i e. circumspection on the first pro- 
ceeding of the understanding faculty ; which, as it 
leads to a detection of the original suggestion and 
emergence of whatever is morally evil, or incorrect, is 
the only rise whereby we can come at a prevention of 
this sort of disorders. It has been shown that there 
are several defects and abuses in mankind's course of 
Education: and that the principal of these are a 4is- 

*8 



9tO 

count of the idea of morals, admission of prejudice, 
exhibition of bad and improper examples, and remiss- 
ness about intilling principles. Now, all these things 
may be remedied : in other words, the common course 
of mankind in the business of Education, may be 
amended. The first step I propose, is circumspection ; 
the efficacy whereof, will presuppose the knowledge 
of what is good, and what is evil. I have formerly 
taken notice of a five fold process used in Education : 
the first step of which was the forming and regulating 
of associate ideas; the second, the unfolding of just 
views of nature to the understanding; the third, the 
conducting of the organs of sound to proper articula- 
tion ; the fourth, forming habits of voluntary action 
conformably to maxims of prudence and purposes of 
social virtue, under a controuling discipline through 
means of practical repetition ; and the fifth, the esta- 
blishing of such associate mechanical movements as 
are connected with or subserve the designed or most 
proper occupation or art of livelihood contemplated as 
a fixture of our existence on the stage of action. 
These were observed to comprehend the whole modus 
operandi, the subject matter of what is necessary to 
be done, in Education ; the same being repeated and 
each part being extended and diversified according to 
the gradual alteration and increase of the capacity, in 
each successive stage of human life. Which, if a man 
feel ever so confident at the age of fifty or seventy 
years, of the adequacy of his attainments, is a benefi- 
cial exercise of mind to take up a studious recapitula- 
tion of this round of recourses, according to the pro- 
priety of their process, not onl) because exercise 
strengthens intellectual as well as other powers, but 
as it serves to disclose any possible failure in faculty, 
or obliquity in habit, to which his own mind may have 
been subject. I shall refer a circumspection to the 
crisis of each of these stages, promiscuously. The 



9* 

very first character the human mind appears in, is the 
infant beginning to entertain notices of things. The 
scope of our circumspection here, is the prevention of 
early prejudices. It is proper to anticipate the influ- 
ence of a nurse, and see that no false, no chimerical 
combinations get footing: here: that darkness be not- 
associated with fear, blackness with sorrow or pain, 
magnitude with right to command, strong emotions of 
mind with certain shapes or configurations, or indeed 
any sort of colour strongly associated with a taste, or 
shape with a sound, &c. which latter, though in this 
place they may seem to be innocuous in themselves, 
yet, by the effect they have on the mind, by wrongly 
disposing it, and preparing it for a bias, are unfavora- 
ble to the purpose of intellectual and moral improve- 
ment ; and it is best to keep out, as far as possible, all 
anomalous and hallucinating connection, that none git. 
root before the discerning faculty is mature. Tie 
first inlet of knowledge, is by way of the senses. Our 
first ideas we get by sensation. The two sources by 
which we get all the ideas, images, notices of things, 
ever admitted to human apprehension, are sensation 
and reflection. Sensation is that motion that is given 
any part or parts of our sensitive organs by the ap- 
pulse of external bodies, whereby we peceive ideas or 
images of external things. In fact, these ideas of sen- 
sation are whatever we perceive by the affection of 
any or all the properties of the sensorium exclusive of 
the voluntary power. Reflection is voluntary think- 
ing : rather, it is that voluntary view the mind takes 
of those ideas it has received by sensation, and of its 
own operations about them ; whereby it gets another 
set of ideas different and distinct from the impressions 
it has from external things. The ideas of all its own 
operations come, in this way. These operations, or 
modes of thinking, are discerning, comparing, com- 
pounding, abstracting^ recollection, attention, study, 



93 

contemplation, imagination, memory, and resverie. 
The progress of the understanding, I suppose to be 
simply this : the infant in the womb has no variety of 
ideas but that of pleasure and pain from different de- 
grees of warmth or some other circumstance, and per- 
haps of solidity. On coming into the air, it is en- 
countered by other stimulants which excite far differ- 
ent movements. It begins to have ideas of colours, 
light, variety of tastes, smells, sounds, heat and cold in 
greater degrees, the pains of hunger and thirst, and 
the pleasures attending the proper means to remove 
those pains. For several days, more or less, the un- 
derstanding is employed upon this variety of ideas, 
which are hourly increasing a id diversifying to suffi- 
ciently excite by their novelty. 

The pleasure it receives from its nurse, is so strong- 
ly associated with the idea of her person, that her ab- 
sence withdraws from it its whole happiness. Herein 
mark the advantage may be made of this property of 
association, by afterwards making letters a scene of 
delightful entertainment, and also, active virtue, by 
placing it with the accompaniments of what its chief 
Measure is associated with : for all such ideas may 
ave a place in the same connection as with those first 
pleasures of existence. This by the bye. To proceed ; 
th< k discerning faculty begins to discover itself in dis- 
tinguishing and identifying objects. The business of 
this is to perceive the difference between two distinct 
ideas : only by this, we know one thing is not another, 
and the same thing at different times to be the same 
with itself. The passions now begin to shew them- 
selves, first joy and grief, next anger, love, hatred, &c. 
Such arrangements as tend to give them due bearings 
and connections, are incalculably important. It is 
possible to attach these to such sorts of objects as, in 
train ; will lead to virtue. Physiologists say this; 
that which distinguishes animals from vegetables, is 



p 

h< 



93 



sensorium. This sensorium is supposed to be the su 
stance of the brian and nerves. A centre of the sen- 
sorium is reckoned to be in the central part of the 
brain. There are four faculties in the sensorium ; in 
other words a capacity of four different modes of ope- 
ration or action, which are called irritation, sensation,, 
volition, and association, which are called sensorial 
motions ; the powers or possibilities whereof, are cal- 
led sensorial powers, and are termed irritability, sen- 
sibility, voluntarily, and associability. " Irritation is 
an exertion or change of some extreme part of the sen- 
sorium residing in the muscles, or organs of sense, in 
consequence of the appulses of external bodies. Sen- 
sation is an exertion or change of the central parts of 
the sensorium or of the whole of it, beginning in some 
of those extreme parts residing in the muscles or or- 
grans of sense. Volition is an exertion or change of 
the central parts of the sensorium or of the whole of 
it, beginning at the centre and terminating in some of 
those extreme parts residing in the muscles or organs 
of sense. Association is an exertion or change of some 
of the extreme parts of the sensorium residing in the 
muscles or organs of sense, in consequence of some 
antecedent or attendant fibrous contractions. 55 * Irri- 
tation attends us in all our working moments, from 
the air we breathe, the ground we tread upon, and 
whatever matter supports our bodies. Irritation either 
simply subsides, or it produces sensation. Sensation 
usually includes pleasure or pain. When it extends 
to either or both of these, it is called perception. Some 
degree of pleasure or pain accompanies almost every 
one of those ideas of external objects, received by sen- 
sation. The distinction of pleasure and pain, is rela- 
tive degree of motion, Pain is too violent or too slow 
-movement in relation to habitual motion, or to the ge- 



* Darwin. 




94 

neral motion of other parts of the system. Pleasure 
is due and equable motio ;, compared to the same 
standards. Sensation usually follows irritation. Ex- 
ceptions take place only when its progress is wholly 
resisted by volition. In like manner, if sensation ever 
fail? to produce some noticeable degree of pleasure or 
pain, it is owing to its being repressed and resisted by 
the contra venient force of volition. In both these ca- 
ses, something frequently takes place like reverie, 
wherein the man being taken up with the contempla- 
tion of some particular idea or train of ideas, this sort 
of voluntary thinking carries such a full energy of vo- 
lition, and so completely exercises the central parts 
of the sensorium, as to leave no room for the counter- 
pressure of sensation to produce any actual percep- 
tion of pleasure or pain. Desire and aversion are in- 
cipient volition. Volition either terminates in desire 
and aversion, or it is propogated to the muscular or- 
gans, when it may be called determination. Ideas are 
by some metaphysicians supposed to be motions of 
sensitive parts, beginning in extreme fibres, produced 
immediately by appulses of other bodies, or re-exci- 
ted afterwards without them, from volition, sensation, 
or association. Those reproduced by the two latter, 
are, by some, called ideas of sensation; and, by the 
former, ideas of reflection ; as in recollection or ima- 
gination ; those of the former of which, are introduced 
mainly by volition ; and, of the latter, by sensation or 
association, or both. All manner of agitation or 
movement, as a consequence more or less immediate, 
of the action of external bodies upon ours, which pro- 
duces ideas, whether it be irritation or sensation, the 
latter being but a continuation of that motion which 
the former begins, may be put under the general name 
sensation. This view of the subject, wherein associa- 
tion being considered as an affection of the s nsori- 
um, is the result of a natural property of man, may 



93 

lead us to an advantageous ascendancy upon method, 
in directing the infant passions and thoughts. For, in 
proportion as this fact is apparent, we have power to 
establish associations upon a solid foundation. The 
progression, now, is into a developement of the various 
modifications of the passions, and all the phenomena 
of their wild career. Desire, anger, love, hatred, hope, 
joy, fear, successively disclose themselves to view in 
some form or other, while yet the creature is not able 
to walk or to articulate. Here is. critical work, that 
claims the attention of guardian, nurse, parent, tutor, 
attendant, or whatever character has the managery of 
or influence over, the infant subject. JVow the world 
thinks there is nothing to do. The commonalty utter- 
ly neglects this stage of Education ; thinking, at least, 
that it is impossible to effect any thing towards ad- 
justing the principles of action, or grounding good ha- 
bits, in so weak a state of intellectual power as is 
peculiar to infancy. Yet I think there is no reason to 
doubt that something may be effected in the following 
ways : viz. By taking care to let all allowable gra- 
tifications of the appetites, propensities and wants in- 
cident to this period of human existence, follow or 
concomitate serenity, or a quiescence of tumultuous 
emotions of mind ; and to not admit their immediate 
consecution to anger, rage, grief, revenge, &c. lest 
there be a false causation established in the trains of 
association ; and, the child considering these bad pas- 
sions and outrageous actions the price of the good 
things he enjoys, contract a habit of such a recourse : 
the natural result whereof is too mischievous not to be 
generally observed and deprecated If you follow a 
child's importunity, violence, or resentment, with 
gratifications, it associates merit with it : it hence- 
forth, becomes, in his esteem, the procuring cause of 
those gratifications. This is too much overlooked. 
People think the young is not capable of any such sys- 



96 

terns of causation. But yet I think it is evident to 
every attentive observer of these appearances, who 
coolly sets about to trace cau&es from the:.' effects, 
that it is susceptible of such c on flections, which in ef- 
fect prove extremely tenacious too; as indeed is any 
sort of impression which takes effect by way of ;ensa- 
tion and the intervention of any considerable degree of 
pleasure or pain, in this early ductile state of the 
frame of human animals : and however forward some 
are to contend that nothing can be done to children 
when they are \ery young, towards qualifying their 
minds witH any species of principles, there evidently 
are two things which can be done, and which ought to 
be carefully avoided. Parents can bring themselves 
into contempt j and bring morality into contempt. 
These can be done pretty early. We know, by sad 
experience, that they are done, and things may be 
fairly disposed to these results, even in infancy. Pa- 
rents and nurses may excite the contempt of children 
against themselves and against morality. A child 
maybe (for a general pattern) reckoned an infant till 
the age of two years. What I am going to describe 
may, in parts, extend over this limit. These effects 
are liable to be brought about in the following ways : 

People make themselves contemptible and make 
the maxims of pure morality contemptible in the views 
of children, in the following ways : 

First. Parents and nurses make themselves con- 
temptible to young children, — 

First, by vain threatening; which is effectually a 
practice of slighting themselves : and when people 
barefacedly exemplify a derogation and setting at 
nought of their own counsels, what other can they 
expect but that bystanders, young or old, as quick as 
they come to notice and understand this, will follow 
their pattern so far as to entertain as trifling conside- 
ration of them and their conversation as their selves 



97 

dor And what do people other than brin» themselves 
and their talk into contempt with their children, when 
they practically repeat threats of punishment, which 
they never execute ? Punishment which were indeed 
just (and might appear so to their apprehensions it* 
these parents did not exemplify the reverse persua- 
sion by invariably shrinking from it) which is now 
rendered a mere jest, a flam, an empty sound, which 
by repetition, loses all its terrors. Furthermore, the 
reiteration of these harmless menaces growing dis- 
gustful, sets their authors in a contemptible light not 
only, but goes so far as to ex: ite insolence. " You'll 
kill me, but you don't touch me" echos a pert booby 
of six vears, to his fond but peevish mother (a vapour- 
ing shrew,) who uses no other weapon of chastisement 
but her tongue, and with this usually overreaches 
her victim. When a roguish horse has once found 
a safe emergence over an enclosure, he no longer 
stands in awe of that mound, but feels himself at li- 
berty: and you might as well talk to ahorse of the 
magnitude and strength of such walls as he has re- 
peatedly sent defiance at, from his heels, as to reite- 
rate threats of punishments to a child, which never 
were and never are likely to be, put in execution. 
Now, such a course cannot excite love, veneration, 
gratitude, compassion, respect, filial obedience, in 
children, for it excites contempt : and contempt in a 
child, for superiors, excludes those emotions. The 
predisposition to this state of mind may be induced in 
infancy. 

Secondly. People make themselves objects of con- 
tempt to adolescent minds, by their own nugacity;— 
as whining, inconstancy, fretfulness, capricious and 
childish sentences, &c. The sense of decorum, in ad- 
vertance to the course of others, is more forward in 
the young than common people are aware% 
9 




98 



Thirdly. By their immoral conduct. Parents, nur- 
ses, and guardians make themselves contemptible to 
their young, by immoral conduct. When people in- 
dulge themselves in gratifications which they precep- 
tively disallow to those under them, and do not put in 
force their precepts (which yet would appear tyranny) 
they become contemptible to those whom they would 
govern. When people practice certain vices, and neg- 
lect to practice certain virtues, at the same time they 
are preaching to, and in a whining manner teaming 
and importuning them to avoid the one and to practice 
the other, they grow contemptible to their hearers and 
attendants. 

Secondly. People bring morality itself into con- 
tempt : and the foundation of this contempt is laid in 
very early infancy. This is susceptive by several in- 
roads — as 

First, by gratifying bad passions and appetites in 
children. By that enlargement which the base appe- 
tites and propensities of animal nature acquire by in- 
considerable indulgence, they gain an ascendency 
which corrupts the whole heart, and makes it averse 
to the precepts of wisdom. In proportion as one's 
enjoyment is made up of such gratifications as are re- 
pugnant to, or incompatible with, moral virtue, he 
comes to look with indignant eyes upon serious teach- 
ings; till the cause of morality itself is, at length, a 
mark to his insolence. Little do people imagine while 
they are endowing their offspring with what they call 
good things^ by way of pacification or reward, such as 
sweetmeats, sugar, cordials, toys, money, &c. that 
ihey flagrantly injure them by nursing those appetites 
and inclinations whose gratification directly counter- 
mines health and virtue. All those things are good 
things in certain points of view, but an erroneous use 
•f them is very hurtful to body and soul. What sig- 
nifies to wean from me vice, while the price of this 



99 

cure is the substantiation of a worse? and what do 
we get, when to dissuade or divert a child from one 
disallowable indulgence, we use him to another which 
is more hurtful? for intemperance, irascibility, and 
effrontory, are as dangerous as any, and often much 
more baleful vices than what to divert them from, we 
nourish these in children ; which is done less in con- 
sideration of their comparative tendency to bad habits 
than with a view to the avoidance of those inconveni- 
ences attending irregularities of this kind : for people 
perceiving it expensive or painful or wearisome, in the 
present, to indulge certain appetites and passions of 
their children, do themselves the honor to say they 
break them of such or such vile habits they have got, 
and learn them better ones; — when at this very time 
they are training them to what is worse, and which not 
admitting the interposition of pure principles ot true 
ethics or prudential precepts, as a succedaneum, 
balks every good design, and strengthening whatever 
is corrupt, disposes to all unrighteousness, Sfc'Wj when 
people's hearts are fully set in them to do evil ; when 
the energy of the will, passions, and affections, con- 
verges to the direct plan of the subversion of all moral 
prescripts and restrictions, they straightway contemn 
morality. 

Secondly. By setting examples of immoral conduct 
simultaneously with moral teachings and advice. Peo- 
ple are unaware how much they counterwork their 
wishes when they communicate their precepts in a 
whining peevish manner; a manner wherein queru- 
lousness is reckoned essential to their chief allevia- 
tion : particular tones by dint of custom catenated to 
anger, of course its appropriate index to observers, are 
bad things to exhibit to the apprehension of chddren. 
Whining, raging, &c; shewing peevishness and iras- 
cibility and such mean disorderly qualities, set parents 
m a bad point of view ; and likewise since childreu 



100 

are more prone to imitate patterns they see, than re- 
duce to practice maxims they hear and have to com- 
prehend, they do much more execution in support of 
vice than of virtue. Now, when children see their 
parents, from whom they receive all the notices they 
come at, of the principles and rules of prudence, ex- 
hibiting examples of manners which are palpably re- 
pugnant to their preaching ; a concurrence that seems 
to evince almost demonstratively that they theirselves 
think lightly of it ; — they aptly run into a contemptu- 
ous estimate of morality itself: which estimate, the 
bad habits of thinking and acting they engender, con- 
firm, to that settled aversion which marks an immoral 
character. There are other sorts of manners besides 
those of communicating prudent injunctions, whose 
exemplification operates perniciously on the young ; 
wherein yet the commonalty of mankind are notori- 
ously apt: luxury and pageantry in their several va- 
rieties, are bad things to familiarize to children ; and 
nothing more common than for the thoughtless to take 
pride in their eminence in the means of excess, and is 
reckoned a criterion of value in rational beings to have 
the power of making themselves uneasy to themselves 
and others, and of consecrating folly at the shrine of 
vanity. So in proportion as one possesses abundance 
of the direct means and materials of intemperance, 
ostentation, cruelty, or oppression, he is estimated to 
be worth such o^ such a sum. ' Worth makes the man,' 
and this worth (think they) must consist in property. 
80 they weigh rationals in scales like beef, poultry. 
and brass, or cast them up by dollars and cents, ac 
cording to the price current of what they possess. 
For souls, an incalculably lighter sort of substances, 
as motes or dust, we left out of their computation. 
The silly world thinks it does something noble when 
it tricks out its children and itself in fine and costly 
apparel ; making no secret of insinuating into the 



lot 

heads of these children their pre-eminence above cer- 
tain others; and people think they do but justice to 
tell their children how much more their family is 
worth than their neighbors; little thinking how surely 
they bring into contempt those important maxims of 
ethicks which evince the equality of all mankind, and 
enjoin us to be meek and humble. It is not explicit 
direction nor fallacious preaching, which determines 
this species of treatment, but practical insinuation ; 
the effect whereof being more susceptive to infancy 
than to any other age, what I have before been noti- 
cing, more confirms it then than ever after it might be 
by any other means. Drunkenness, gluttony, coque- 
try, libidmousness, revenge, craft, foppery, partiality, 
niggardliness, insolence, which people too generally 
are prone one time or another to deform themselves 
with, are very dangerous to come into the notice of 
the young where no paramount impression has pre-es- 
tablished a serious principle, which can never be ex- 
pected in the first, second or third year of childhood ; 
and parents have no right to expect it from any other 
quarter than their own infusions, which if they defeat 
by their own practice, and pull down with one hand 
what they make pretence of building up with the 
other, they ultimately put good morals at open con- 
tempt. 

Thirdly; in general by all those steps which tend 
to render parents, nurses, and guardians, themselves 
marks of contempt in the eyes of children, the subject 
of their teaching is also brought into the like con- 
tempt 

Fourthly : by playing with children. The practice 
of playing with and caressing children, tends to in- 
duce that state of mind that eventually brings on this 
contemptuous and indignant view of the principles and 
rules of good morals. People from want of thought 
incline to an excessive attachment to the persons of 

*9 



103 

their children, which leads them into a ridiculous 
course of caressing them, and teaching them to play 
nugatorily or injuriously ; which aptly leads to a habit 
of mischief; for, to compass their ends they stop not 
at what may encroach upon the rights or convenience 
of bystanders ; wherein, the habit of tolerating their 
course, excludes shame and remorse. This is treat- 
ing children like brute animals rather than as rational 
beings. This is a sort of treatment that evinces res- 
pect to mere animals. We shew respect to our favo- 
rite domestic animals by fondly caressing and coaxing 
them. A dog, a cat, a monkey, is honoured and in 
some sort civifiz'd (being made intimate with our ob- 
servance) by our caresses ; but human beings, wherein 
exist in embryo the faculties abstraction, discernment, 
conscience, with several distinguishing affections, and 
by and by to be trained into conduct good or bad, re- 
quire different treatment. This strikes at the root 
of modesty. The foundation of good qualities is laid 
earlier than is generally imagined. The first bent of 
the affections is the surest. Age recurs to it. And 
when children are disciplined altogether to romantic 
play, and the cherishing of jestful turns of humour and 
thought, their whole entertainment being made to con- 
sist of unmeaning sports, wherein the idea of relation 
to the feelings of others is no ^ay concerned as test or 
guide ,* what other can we expect than that they come, 
of course, to contemn what makes mainly against the 
whole business of their happiness— which the precepts 
of morality imposing obligations of gratitude, tempe- 
rance, industry, and beneficence, plainly do ? How 
far is the real tendency of this course of treatment 
from the apprehension of those whom it most con- 
cerns ! How little do they think while they are learn- 
ing children to play, they are instilling into them an 
aversion to serious duty! They seem to contemplate 
no scale of direct proficiency ascending upwards to 



103 

the excellences of the species, to which its capacity 
would naturally progress ; but a proficiency that 
verges to the emulation of brutes ; in which when all 
is done, they can never rival them : even the cat kind 
(to say nothing of the ape-kind) exceedingly leave 
children behind, in play. Yet this is the first serious 
business children are set about after they come into 
this world. This is a no less reprehensible, than inve- 
terate prostitution of human endowments : at least as 
universal as it is, it is a very injudicious treatment of 
the infant understanding 

People often appear to misconceive the powers of 
the young mind : they fancy not that what they say in 
jest, irony, burlesque, though understood by other by- 
standers, does not come so into the comprehensions of 
children (so short-sighted are the fond) ; but have the 
serious effect of the most positive allegations. •• Give 
me a blow and I will beat him,'" is often said by 
way of pacification, to the encouragement of a vindic- 
tive disposition : and how extravantly we purchase 
the momentary quiet of children at the expense of 
their virtue, by infusing arrant qualities ! 

I have formerly spoken of an association of the idea 
of contempt with certain sorts of tones, phrases, modes 
of address, laughs, &c. ; concerning which, I would 
now take notice that it is sometimes brought about by 
the contrasts of an extravagant fashion, which I am 
going to speak of, that is too prevalent amongst the 
4 children of this world ' Besides going pointedly to 
reproach and rebuff children when they aspire to in- 
trusive familiarity, people sometimes set about to 
please themselves by means of these: they design 
sometimes, by an odd way, to please and entertain 
themselves with them ; and this they do frequently at 
the expense of these children's morals. Treating the 
vagaries and nonesense of children as matter ofarcb 
buffoonery, and obsequiously exemplifying signs of 



101 

the entertainment properly produced by such when 
exhibited by adult persons, of discretion, if it &b not 
fix this association of contempt whereby it abashes 
and depresses the child's confidence iri others, and 
sours its temper, induces one equally disastrous, by 
connecting that respect with its own person, which is 
associated, in its mind, with the persons of its superi- 
ors in age and experience ; which inevitably tends into 
conceit, pride, and ambition Nothing is more obvi- 
©usly apt than this tendency ; — for as it is out of a 
connection of the emotion of complacency with the 
idea of any person or character, that human estimation 
of such objects is originally and necessarily genera- 
ted ; it is plain that when children have in themselves 
the very same emotion of regard connected with the 
idea of their own person as with that of those who 
having greater power, experience, and knowledge, are 
rationally estimated higher, or in reflecting minds ex- 
cite a greater degree of that emotion by the medium of 
that incident, which being misapprehended, causes the 
other association in children, they esteem themselves 
too highly, and in the same degree as they do others 
on account of those things for which in reality their- 
selves are not qualified : and this is pride : which pre- 
sently begets peevishness and insolence. Oft hare I 
seen a whole room full of maids and dames in a roar 
of merriment, at the wit of a darling zany, which ex- 
cited in him the idea of praise, but not the idea of its 
being misapplied ; and the tendency of which was too 
obvious not to have been seen that it encouraged and 
emboldened him to very disgusting essays at the imi- 
tation of those who had customarily within his obser- 
vance, the happiness to be the instrument of just such 
mirth ; and naturally operated to nourish the worst 

Erinciples, by inflaming the basest passions. By and 
y their glee takes a sarcaslical turn, aid, being 
wearied out with his irritations, they wish, all at once 



li)5 

to shame and dishearten him ; wherein if their re- 
proach be perceived to be in earnest so very severe as 
to produce the association of contempt, the cause of it 
comes now from a quarter that is apt to give it a ten- 
dency to superinduce sullenness, suspicion, malice, 
and repress even natural aflection. Sometimes this 
delectable farce is carried on so far as to involve the 
managers in deep shame and confusion by the expo- 
sure of the reproach it draws on them to the obser- 
vance of their most considerate friends. Then it is 
that their chagrin turns the current of their wit to an 
unconcealed annovance of the feelings of whom it has 
thus insidiously flattered. Thus arises a two-handed 
obstacle to the forming of moral character, of which 
the fathers of it are not aware : which generating 
either a haughty, pert, officious temper, or a dark sul- 
len jealous one, encumbers the domestic scene with a 
train of contristating commotions. If then when 
children have the first bias of their thoughts and af- 
fections, which is always the strongest, fixed by this 
habit of jesting and farcical chase after entertainment 
where is no entertainment to be got for persons of re- 
flection, the consequence is that they are either made 
hereby proud and domineering, orlowliv'd, sullen, and 
suspicious, in their dispositions, with a tenacity pro- 
portionate to the force of early impressions, it behooves 
such as have the care of them to be circumspect of 
what manner of addresses they make to their under- 
standings and hearts. 

Fifthly. The actions and conversation of servants, 
tend to set morality in a contemptuous point of view- 
to the apprehension of children. The custom of keep- 
ing black slaves and drudges is used among civilized 
communities to the disgrace of humanity. A habit of 
treating with haughtiness and disrespectful or con- 
temptuous language, those adult persons in our service, 
in the presence of children, works bad effects in them ; 



106 

we cannot expect children to know any precedent for 
which they have more deference than the example ot 
their parents. What people habitually indulge them- 
selves in doing, they generally tolerate their children 
in. Now, when the aspiring tyro, in coats, is upheld 
in, and commended for, rallying and reproaching his 
superiors, how ill must the gentleman in breeches, 
brook any check upon the like insolence, which from 
the same proneness he has brought up with him from 
his cradle, of course rather increas'd than diminish'd r 
Another thing is this ; these slaves, by the contempt 
they are chained to, are instigated to vile conversa- 
tion ; a habit of railing at things serious and sacred, 
which they see no where guarded but by their enemies ; 
and, in fact, their condition, shaped by these tyrants, 
who -have presumed to controul their natural rights, so 
circumscribes their intelligence that they have no pre- 
tence to correct principles or refined manners : and 
children communicating with these, get from them im- 
moral ideas and profane dialect. This is a bad situa- 
tion for children to be in ; for they early get aristo- 
cratical principles, and habits of insolence, eifrontory, 

f)ageantry, &c. All men are equal ; it is an abuse to 
luman nature to treat some grown people as inferior 
to others. Almost any man's observation may abun- 
dantly attest the haughtiness of those children of 
wealthy and pageant families, whose parents are in the 
habit of keeping slaves. Traffic in human flesh origi- 
nated in cupidity of lucre ; and this same cupidity be- 
ing nursed on the lap of fortune till it creates the 
'basest sort of pride, pride of superiority in enjoyment, 
or rather possession of this world's power and pelf, 
treats with inequality those under its gard. For these 
impious dealers and truckers in human flesh, enter- 
taining the absurd persuasion of the inferiority of 
black and yellow complexions, to white, (a superficial 
estimate of human beings, like that of birds or clothe 



107 

not only deny the former those particular immunities 
and advantages wherewfth they favor the latter, but 
likewise even those privileges to which all mankind 
have naturally a common title. Mow, if white people 
really think that black are not so good as themselves, 
and not naturally worthy of so great privileges ; this 
very persuasion is such an argument against their 
meddling with those nations to whom nature has given 
that color, as makes it a glaringly impious usurpation 
that has no pretence but the basest woridliness, to 
bring them into civilized communities and convert 
them to their use and service like cattle. This by the 
bye. Those who by inheritance possess slaves or des- 
cendants of slaves, although they cannot answer for 
the injustice ot their own ancestors, can yet give these 
drudges equal Education with their owi*€hildren, and 
obviate all perversion of morals, by placing all colors 
on the same footing of privileges and powers. 

Sixthly. Vociferation and clamor praotic'd by a fa* 
mily, tend to bring morality into contempt. Many 
people give full vent to their wind, not considering 
that children try to emulate the force and extent <3f 
their sounds; whose voices being unmusical, make 
the house unpleasant by their scrannel noises. In 
some families is a continual clatter, from confusin* 
sport and deafening sorts of gambolling, (from this 
humour of training infants to play instead of useful 
exercises) where a studious guest might fancy himself 
in a cotton mill; and could enjoy no more liberty 
(while silence and tranquillity being naturally adju- 
vant to the purposes of meditation, are usually accus- 
tomed to a determinate association with them) than he 
could in the circle of an Indian powow. Now, the 
ways of;virtue are peaceful, and wisdom delighteth i* 
serenity. Ingenuous reflection must rise in the medi- 
um of tranquillity. Without serious reflection, there 
can never be substantiated the principles of moral vir- 



108 

tue, or good habits of thinking and acting. Therefore, 
if children be learnt a habit of obstreperousness, they 
acquire, in consequence of this, an aversion to correct 
principles of morals, and to the precepts and disci- 
pline which go to substantiate these. An aversion to 
reflection is the natural result of the habitual pursuit of 
those things which exclude reflection. For habit con- 
centrates the chief enjoyment of life in that train of 
perceptions which includes the discriminations of the 
successive acts of those powers exerted in a course of 
repetition, and which comprehends the several connec- 
tions of our ideas of pleasure. What communion has 
righteousness with unrighteousness? What intelli- 
gence can uproar hold with serenity, which is the con- 
dition of one disposed to reflection, contemplation, and 
abstraction ? These are indispensable stepstones to 
perfect virtue. Vociferous talk, horse laugh, and bois- 
terous behavior, should not be practiced by parents, 
nurses, and influential bystanders, within the notice of 
children. A habit of violence in any sort of movement, 
whether in speaking, walking, resolution, labor, or 
Sport, is (to say the least) very unbecoming in the 
rising generation ; and I think, in consequence of it 
children become averse to the rules and ways of pru- 
dence, and finally contemn those who presume to 
teach that which is good ; holding modesty, meekness, 
temperance, caution, and deliberation, but so many 
tricks of sheepishness Furthermore, it proves insup- 
portably disgusting to studious minds, which are the 
most likely to be the best friends they can find in the 
world. 

Seventhly. By an ungarded practice of speaking 
contemptuously of religion without reserve, morality 
is liable to be brought into contempt in the minds of 
observant innocents, who knowing of no morality in 
the world that is publicly taught, but what is one time 
or other inculcated or enjoined (in connection however 



109 

with some mystical things) by the official dispensers of 
societies of religious operators distinguished by parti- 
cular tenets or instituted articles of faith ; which if 
they be ever so superstitious, ought to have credit 
given them for whatever moral truths they do enjoin 
or exemplify, and for whatever benevolence pertains 
to their motives; otherwise we shake the foundation 
of society : tor children hearing certain religious sects, 
and the theories, customs, and fashions by which they 
are known, indiscriminately satiriz'd, and burlesquely 
taken oft* without exception, by those who are these 
children's dearest patrons, and imbibing hereby a pre- 
judice against these objects; when they come to hear 
these societies preach about moral obligations and the 
like, incline to hate and dispise this as much as any 
thing else that may distinguish them, inasmuch as they 
have no experience of it as a discrimination of any 
other sort of characters. Whereas when care is taken 
to keep up the inculcation of morals at home, sepa- 
rately from sophistication of any kind, more liberty 
may be taken to make free with systems which par* 
take of fantastical ideas, with such modifications, still, 
as to avoid slander, which of itself goes into thecoun- 
terview of beneficence. In speaking of the absurdi- 
ties of religious systems and the folly of sectaries in 
presence of children, people would do well to consid- 
er two things; 1st. The motives which do or may ope- 
rate in the minds of those sectaries, and which pro- 
bably originated the establishment of those systems : 
2d. The morals which they practically insist upon in 
their teachings, lives, and conversations, which thej 
3eem to aim at, by maintaining such practical truths 
as their books and discourse exhibit. We should se- 
parate the chaff from the grain : and when we go to 
animadvert upon a system or society which has the 
general credit of all the public morals in circulation, 
we should perspicuously designate the marks of our 
10 



110 

satire as being those tilings which are (and may be 
made to appear such to Vne understandings of those 
who being our curious auditors, are competent to dis- 
cern the purport of our discourse) delusive and cor- 
rupting. It behooves us to lay particular stress on 
what respect their modes do yield to the cause of mo- 
rality. The parable of the tares arid wheat may be 
very well applied to illustrate what I am here speak- 
ing of. The wheat may represent the useful and va- 
luable truths in a system of doctrine and the tares the 
errours and immoment positions. A sanguine adviser 
suggests the pulling out the tares that the wheat may 
thrive without encroachment. The master says, nay : — 
lest, while you pull out the tares, you root out also the 
wheat with them:' let both grow together till the har- 
vest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the rea- 
pers, gather together first the tares and bind them in 
bundles to burn them ; but gather the wheat into my 
barn." In like manner, I fancy, good principles have 
many times been rooted out of the young by a too 
hasty extirpation of delusions, that coming from the 
same concourse of accidents, are equally radicated 
amongst the first and most endeared acquaintances of 
the young intelligence. Therefore I think it better, 
when fantastical opinions and important truths have 
both got root together by process of an accustomed 
system, and are as it were growing together in the 
same soil, (for a child meets with fine strains of ethicks 
in the most mystical preachers' sermons) to let both 
grow together till the maturity of judgment, which 
may be called the time of harvest, enables him to pick 
out and apply all truths of practical importance, while 
he rejects the errours, the delusive and immoment 
hypotheses, and discards them as chaff; than by tear- 
ing out errours and matters of infer tour consequence, 
to oblete what is valuable, when the former do not 
wholly choke and. hinder the growth of what is good 



Ill 

and correct; unless there be an opening to substitute 
some better system instead of that which drags with 
it so many fantastical ideas as makes morality roman- 
tic instead of making it naturally pleasing and agree- 
able in the manner of the common routine of our per- 
ceptions of natural beings. Yv hen we cannot, or de- 
termine to not, substitute something else as a practical 
system to impress right principles, and bias the affec- 
tions to propriety and justice, let both grow together 
untd the harvest: then the reasoning mind is incited 
to select what useful dogmas may be reduced to prac- 
tice in social life, and apply them as directories to its 
actions in reference to its fellow creatures or its own 
future experience. Let both grow together until the 
harvest; rather than by rooting out the worthless, to 
destroy also the good, which is connected in the same 
assemblage of associated movement. But this rule is 
recommendable to no other case except where is no 
measure intently pursued to lay a solid foundation of 
good qualities by a right training of all the faculties 
from the beginning. Children should be taught to 
reason early, and to deny themselves according to 
reason. 

Eighthly. By a practice of stigmatizing and re- 
viling others. Many heads of families blunder into 
a vile trick of speaking reproachfully to and of their 
neighbors, openly before their children. This speaks 
utter thoughtlessness of moral tendencies ; for if 
these suffered reason a moment to controul their emo- 
tion and take the sway of their thoughts, they could 
scarely avoid discovering the perniciousness of these 
lessons of insolence upon the minds of those whom 
they would consult their own dignity to conceal them 
from. But when men set out at the beck of their own 
unreined humour to satirize their fellow creatures 
sometimes in anger, sometimes for sport, in either of 
which cases it produces an impression which is the 




its 

cdunterview of benevolence, they so far loose sight of 
moral obligations that they do not perceive they have 
for their auditors those who are not so much as pos- 
sessed of that power of judgement theirselves abuse; 
and so one generation after another is corrupted, and 
the world filled with little bickering parties, and 
neighbors at sword's points with each other. Now 
such lessons of slander and abuse, dealt out by their 
parents and protectors, give a disparaging cast to chil- 
dren's estimate of whatever is seriously coercive. 
The very ideas of disallovvable actions are dangerous 
to be exposed to young minds; for such consider the 
practicability of a thing s not its relation to a rule, nor 
its consequence ; while, in the ardour of their volun- 
tary energy, their affections are wont to embrace for- 
bidden motes, through attraction of novelty : there- 
fore previously to their being susceptible of a just es- 
timate of actions, immoral principles and licentious 
pursuits (so fi?r as it is feasible to conceal them) should 
not be exhibited to their apprehension, any further 
than they can contrast their tendencies with those of 
opposite modes, and adopt the one and discard the 
other, on account of their consequences. 

With regard to that part of education whose im- 
mediate scope is to stock the mind with the several 
sorts of physical knowledge, and proofs that support 
opinions concerning several beings and operations that 
are apt variously to influence and affect mankind, 
there is one thing in common usage that is evidently 
encumbering to the advancement of the knowledge of 
substances: and that is the constraint put upon in- 
fants in the examination of things by their proper or- 
gans of sense. Children are early susceptible of verv 
accurate ideas of substances by curiously exerting 
their senses about them. Their curiosity" is strong ; 
and (hey have great pleasure in their perceptions, by 
reason of novelty, which also helps to confirm impress- 



113* 

ions on the memory. To tantalize children with 
the sight of things which they are not allowed to touch, 
is imprudent treatment of their faculties. The young 
gets true ideas of natural objects by a free handling 
and viewing of them on every side. Such an exer- 
cise of its powers is improving as well as pleasing, in 
addition to the pleasure accompanying every new per- 
ception ; which different pleasures conspire to enliven 
and invigorate the pursuit of knowledge. Rosseau 
was of opinion that - a child by applying and exercis- 
ing his bodily organs (his hands, eyes, and feet) will 
acquire more real knowledge even in the period of 
infancy, than he would if we should dedicate nine 
tenths of his time to books, from the age of six to 
sixty." 

To learn children to articulate correctly is but to 
give them precise and striking precedents to imitate, 
to warily note the progress of their attainments in such 
imitation, and the points wherein they fail in it, and 
assist them by impressive repetitions of these parti- 
culars, to come up to its perfection : and not (as is 
commonly done) to accommodate the standard to their 
imperfections, and let it descend to their defective 
and bungling ways of conforming to it. 

With a reference to mechanic arts, it will not be 
lost labour to take notice of the modes of motion that 
are most habituated by children, and what aptness or 
expertness they have "attained or are most likely to 
attain, in any of them. 



*10 



*114 



CHAPTER II. 

Of the Managery of the Imitative Faculty. 

I have in a former chapter shown that there was a 
propensity in man to repeat and act over those move- 
ments he sees performed by others : and that this was 
a constitutional property of human nature. This 
propensity shews itself in early infancy. Before the 
vocal organs are turned to articulation, we may disco- 
ver this aptitude : first in smiles; next in motion of 
the arms, &c. The origin of smile is the reaction of 
the muscles of the face, in an infant, upon those which 
having been in a particular manner extended in the 
act of drawing nourishment from the breast of its 
mother, are relaxed while the stomach is digesting the 
nutriment it is filled with, the pleasure whereof being 
the first in life, its ascendency associates it so strongly 
with this posture of the muscles, that serene pleasure 
is always afterwards wont to excite the like. The 
sight of a smile in another's countenance, excites this 
by way of a proneness in those muscles to imitate cor- 
respondent ones in others. Afterwards the sympathy 
is enlarged by the connection of serene pleasure : and 
then the hypothetical idea that it exists in another 
party, introduces the same movements. This smile is 
a fibrous motion, and it is introduced by sensation ; 
and also in its turn immediately produces pleasure by 
relieving an irksome posture of the fibres. This sort 
of connection of fibrous and sensorial motions, where 
one introduces the other, I think is, by the physiolo- 
gists, called catenation. 



115 

The proper managery of this propensity, to ground 
a general conformity to the principles of virtue, in the 
progressive trains of voluntary actions that are to 
come up with the expansion of the animal frame, is a 
work of some nicety. In training this propensity and 
directing it towards the formation and pursuance of 
virtuous habits, the following particulars are necessary 
to be carefully observed. 

I. Care must be taken to give early excitement to 
this propensity, by setting such patterns of actions 
and signs, to the infants notice, as it is capable of per- 
forming an imitation of; instead of such as it cannot 
imitate : since every faculty and part by exercise in 
infancy, acquires force and facility more rapidly than 
at any other period. And on the other hand, faculties 
that lie dormant in infancy, are seldom bright, in life ; 
are seldom brought to operate with energy and facili- 
ty without more pains in culture, than the others, 
which have been brought into early trials. It is a gen- 
erally prevailing opinion that there is something here- 
ditary in the passive qualities of human nature. 
There is something hereditary in the appetencies and 
propensities of the infant, which is whatever is trans- 
mitted in the texture and habits of internal moving of 
the animated mass ; whereby it is predisposed for one 
appetite, faculty, or habit, more than for another : 
which devolving from generation to generation, ap- 
pears in each with more or less conspicuity as it is 
more or less cherish'd, and meets with greater or less 
encouragement by concurrence in those who have in- 
fluence on the early part of education, There is very 
little in all this that cannot be easily overruled. Yet 
there be many who see great things here. They fancy 
they see orators, musicians, divines, poets, mechanics 
&c, in children : so enthusiastic is their appreciation 
ot these portents, which are merely signs of incident 
concurrences, in the age of adolescency. Now, there 



116 

be some motions which the infant is capable of imitat- 
ino; with effect ; and there be others of which it cannot 
possibly produce any thing like an imitation : and of 
both these descriptions, there are those which on being 
presented to its sense, it feels desire to imitate. The 
first we can recognize, must consist in motions of the 
hands, arms, feet, and motions with the eyes, face, 
and some of the organs of speech. I include some 
of those appearances that are significant with physi- 
ognomers. Let them concur according to nature, 
with their proper emotions. Such movements of the 
hands may be set them to copy, as are favourable to 
the practice of certain arts ; that, herein being led into 
a practical repetition that shall make those motions 
easy, incident, and pleasurable; we half learn the in- 
fant a particular trade or profession we mean the man 
to follow. Mark this, artists, and such as have the 
finding of them! I would not. by any means uphold 
the casting of occupations for persons while they are yet 
infants, any more than the odious tyranny of controuling 
marriages, at mature age: yet since those peculiar 
modes of honest employment whereby we are to get 
sustenance, are all equal and indifferent among them - 
selves in relation to the standard of moral good, it 
cannot be improper to qualify persons for a facile and 
expeditious acquirement of any one of those, although 
such qualification may very aptly determine the choice. 
Those modes of motion requisite in performing mu- 
sic of several sorts, may be most likely acquired now ; 
it being with the utmost advantage, with regard to 
habit, that they are set afoot at this period. Planing, 
sawing, turning, rolling, prying, may be taught exceed- 
ing cheaply, easily, and advantageously ; since such 
trials strengthen the muscles employed in those trades, 
and fit them to go through the performances without 
exhaustion. There be peculiar turns and movements 
of the eyes, lips, head, &c. which are Jndiocratically 



117 



attached to certain emotions. Let such be put into 
examples, as seem connected with the good passions, 
and let them be urged upon the pupil's apprehension, 
preferably at those moments when the good passions 
have the chance to prevail. The subject is incited to 
imitate ; and this imitation is to a good effect, both 
with regard to degree, and form of connection. The 
result is a happy degree towards improvement of 
mind : regulation of the powers and affections of the 
human mind at their early deveiopement For there 
is something congenially concurrent in this species ; 
and if their significant movements and forms be once 
set agoing correctly when ail the materials are ductile 
and yielding, (which yet is easy to bring about,) im- 
portant effects are achieved : much painful calamity 
is averted, and much real enjoyment of existence se- 
cured : for a child in pursuing the imitation of the 
concomitant sign, habituates the reality of the arche- 
type. 

II. Not only should we scrupulously limit our pat- 
terns to those things of which the infant powers arc 
capable of approximating an assimilation, in order to 
bring this faculty to early excitation and alertness; — 
but be careful, no less, to exhibit the stimilus of pat- 
terns of such motions and signs as aptly lead into, or 
are substantially connected with, real virtue, in exclu- 
sion of such as appear at the age of discretion, to be 
any way joined to vice, either as applicatives of base 
or maleficient projects ; the usual objects of such pro- 
jects ; or as being such things as by way of physical 
causation either induce, inflate, .or in any manner ad- 
juvate the motives thereof. 

You may fancy, dear reader, I am extravagantly 
tasking your discernment. Let me give you a few 
plain samples. If I teach my son the motions of his 
fingers and arms requisite in fiddling ; when he gets 
sense and strength enough he will incline to fiddle i 



118 

and, since this business is intimately allied to vice, 
by being attended arid accompanied with all manner 
of patterns of, and temptations to, profanity, intempe- 
rance, sensuality, pageantry &c m fiddling be will 
be ij imminent danger of being corrupted. Must we 
then never avail ourselves of such advantages ? music 
itself is valuable ; indeed cultivated mmds do well to 
avail themselves of its use. This must be done by 
insisting particularly on this point, in our moral infu- 
sions. The child must not be suffer'd to go out of his 
leading strings to practice within the sphere of cor- 
rupting examples and incitements till he be fortified 
against them ; but must be caused to practice sepa- 
rately from the coincidents which are usual ; and in 
him the pleasures of music should be contrasted with 
the miseries of those fashionable concomitants of it. 
Therefore to superinduce such facilities, is a design 
that requires circumspection to discriminate moral 
evil, and avert the ascendancy of it over convenience. 
If I present to his notice, those airs, looks, gesticula- 
tions and expressions, which are the apt free adjuncts 
of excessive stimulus of wine or spirits, and he imi- 
tates them ; I say when his powers mature and he 
comes to perceive the original cause of what he has a 
habit of, he will too fatally incline to resort to the 
source of all the intrinsical pleasure or enjoyment 
there was efficiently pertaining to that which he having 
been facinated to imitate, now has a habit of exem- 
plifying. 

Furthermore; if he sees me constantly drink my 
beer out of wineglasses, such as ar* used in drinking 
spirits, afterwards having learnt the use, and associa- 
ted it with all his governing pleasures, he is apt to ap- 
ply it to what is more common, upon the same princi- 
ple as he at first habituated the appropriation. The 
transition is shorter and more incident than if he had 
not only never seen mc drink spirits, but had never 



seen me make use of such vessels as people are seeju 
commonly to drink spirits out of. 

Again : suppose I am continually handling and shuf- 
fling about a parcel of those tablets called playing 
cards; the observer afterwards perceiving the use to 
vhich they are fashionably applied, being games of 
^iance upon extravagant challenges and accompanied 
with profanity, is more readily inclined to copy that 
whereof he has a habit of imitating the manneL of em- 
ploying the instruments, than of what he has no ideas 
that have such familiar connections in his nnnri , and 
sooner becomes a gamester than if he had never seen 
my attention engaged by objects of that description. 

III. We ought not to set children patterns of things 
which we do not wish to have them imitate. This is 
imbecility, and frustratory rashness. Yet this is very 
commonly, and inconsiderately done, both in words 
and actions. 

IV. The next thing that we ought to be specially 
autious of, is, the exciting their imitative faculty by 

such things as they ought not to imitate ; — such things 
as it is not morally good for them to imitate, or not 
compatible with their own corporeal or intellectual 
health or the well being of the family of which they 
make a part, and consequently with that of the 
great community they are coming members of. This 
is immoral. People are unaware of the consequences 
of this sort of treatment, when th*3y urge children to 
trials of profanity, insolence, revenge, excessive drink- 
ing &c. even before they can perfectly articulate. 

V. Another thing we ought to be scrupulous about, 
in th% department of our treatment, is, the allowing of 
children to imitate things they are not fit for; which 
their age condition, and understanding powers, make 
them altogether incompetent to the practical pursuit 
of; which would be inconsistent with their interest 
and the good of those they live with, even if they can 



IS© 

at present with pleasure imitate them. An instance 
of what I am here guarding against, is parents suffer- 
ing young children to attempt the emulation of their 
manners in eating, and other parts of their carriage: 
suffering them to sit at table with them as compeers 
and help and feed themselves after their pattern. 
There are some particular things that, under certain 
circumstances (however proper for adults) we ought 
not to permit children to attempt a habitual imitation 
of. To treat children as equals before they can rea- 
son, is odiously perverting. Accustoming them to eat 
from the same dish as their parents and superiors, has 
the effect of this; for it impresses these children with 
the persuasion that they are as worthy of reverence 
from them as the contrary, and as worthy of attention 
and submission from others. Besides, it is a disgust- 
ing spectacle to see children whose strength and size 
are not adequate to wielding decently the implements 
of feeding, dipping with grown men and women in the 
same dishes and cups, drizzling sauce and oil over the 
table, and justling those who sit next them. More 
than this, it leads to gluttony: and stuffing children, 
inevitably makes them averse to study. 

To encourage children in loquacity by replying to all 
their capricious queries, and tempting to exemplify their 
odd expression by asking them questions, for the sake 
of entertainment, is also pernicious. This is actual 
imposture play'd on them. It is wheedling them into 
the office of a merryandrew, and at the same time 
concealing it altogether from their eyes ; while hence- 
forth their most serious thoughts are frustraneously 
employ'd. Children ought not to be suffered even to 
practice the requesting of things not proper for them 
to be indulged with. The very indulging of desire so 
far as to express it earnestly in words, increases it: 
this is a practice of a voluntary exertion, that gene- 
rates a habit. So that we should not only strictly de- 



121 

ny children gratifications we know to be improper for 
them, but also interdict their importuning for them, 
which will effectually prevent their longing for those 
things, and, in the end, extinguish their desire. 

Among other things, we should endeavor to suppress 
a desire of notice and applause. An extravagant wish 
of general notice and admiration from others around 
them, is very apt to g^t root in children in their ordi- 
nary way of being trained. It is corrupting to chil- 
dren's minds to take too much notice of them. What 
is baneful to children's morals and understanding 
powers, is taking too much notice of them. Nothing 
is more injurious that is so little suspected, as the tak- 
ing notice of every thing they say or do, and thereup- 
on indicating such emotions as admiration, wonder, 
reverence, &c. which are suffer'd to be follow'd by ex- 
pressive exclamations. For when children find all 
their movements noticed, as of superiors, and causing 
such impressions, how is it to be otherwise than that 
they infer from this that they are superiors, to others, 
and have powers and qualities in them that make them 
s. more valu'd and worthy of remark, as being able to 
produce such effects on others' feelings, and therefore 
take to themselves praise? In short, nothing so di- 
rectly blows them up with pride; — and perverts every 
principle of pure morals their hearts are susceptible 
of. It likewise contracts the flights of their intellt- 
gentiai powers, and confines their speculations in the 
base regions of self felicitation. 

In expatiating upon the defects of moral education, 
I took notice or a notorious blunder which the com- 
monalty of mankind are addicted to run into, and 
which remarkably characterizes the present times in 
this country, among all classes of society; when pa- 
rents and nurses designedly egg the imitative faculty 
of children to immoral modes and improper use of the 

U 



1-22 

organs of speech, to amuse themselves with the sight 
of their antique feats;— such as retaliatory striking, 
threatening, profane and blasphemous expressions, 
contradiction, reviling, lisping, and nicknaming: ex- 
travagantly fancying because theirselves except from 
those modes the essential of intention, that therefore 
their tyros take such models in that abstracted state ; 
whereas none goes about the practice of them with 
more exquisite earnestness of intention. Thus re- 
venge and cruelty steal a march upon animal strength ; 
and profanity and contumely are learn'd before *he 
organs can perfectly articulate. It falls out that the 
proper articulation of the language of any nation, ac- 
cording to its true idiom, is congenial to the adaptation 
of the articulating organs of the people of that nation, 
and is the natural use of them. Therefore to learn 
children to articulate correctly, is easier than to learn 
them to articulate incorrectly. Children imitate their 
parents because they get from them their first plea- 
sures. Imitation is wont to be excited by that which is 
apt to delight. Mankind more readily imitate those 
performances which directly or indirectly cause de- 
light, than others, which do not cause any delight. 
The association of delight with any model, gives it the 
eligibility of a recourse to realize what they deem it 
the source of. Now the actions of their parents, de- 
light children rather than those of other people, be- 
cause they are associated with the ideas of their per- 
sons ; and their persons are considered the causes of 
their chief pleasures; and thus, in the connection of 
causation, have a permanent union with their original 
ideas of pleasure. 

Example being the only instrument that gives us 
any efficiency on this faculty in others, there being no 
way we can directly modify this propensity to the im- 
itating of the exertions of others' systems without set- 
ting certain patterns before the subjects, to follow, 



128 



what further observations are pertinent to this topic, 
would seem to belong properly to that head ;— and I 
shall therefore refer my reader to a perpension of what 
has been heretofore said thereunder. 



IS* 



CHAPTER. IIL 

Of the Reversion of Habits. 

I come now to speak of a thing which I have two 
classes of objectors ready to pronounce an impracticable 
revery, — the indolent and the voluptuous : that is, 
the total reversing or cancelling of certain settled 
habits; in consequence of which contrary ones are 
established in their stead. 

There is in the human System, a constitutional pro- 
perty or quality, whereby we find pleasure in those 
actions which we have repeatedly performed, on that 
particular account their having been by us repeatedly 
performed; in preference to all other sorts of actions. 
The proximate cause wherefore this susceptibility is ; 
why we have this pleasure in actions we have repea- 
tedly performed rather than in any other actions we 
have not repeatedly performed, may seem at first view 
a little difficult to explain ; and has been by some 
thought inexplicable. 

I shall attempt to account for it in the following- 
manner. 

There is a continual accession ar.<l expenditure of 
sensorial power, or spirit of animation (by which all 
our exertionss are carried on) in the hura&tf machine. 
The substratum of this power, is reckoned by aome to 
be matter secreted fro.n the atmosphere, and no oiWer 
than that which is the medium of electricity. Others 
hold, it is secreted from the blood. Whatever be the 
peculiar form and consistence of the substance where- 
in this power immediately inheres ; we know there is 



125 

power, and that it is liable to augmentation and 
iminution : and by this change it is evident there is 
particular subject it resides in, or whose presence 
Jves us this power. The existence of such things we 
know only by their effects. This being accepted? that 
this substance, or (at least) this power, is subject to al- 
ternate accumulation and diminution, by its supply 
and expenditure ; it follows, extraordinary quiesence 
produces accumulation, and extraordinary action pro- 
duces diminution. In the one case, the supply tran- 
scends the expenditure ; in the other, the expenditure 
outgoes the supply. Now, when more is accumulated 
than is expended, there is a redundance. A redun- 
dance produces uneasiness. Therefore due expendi- 
ture has pleasure with it. The expenditure is by any 
or all of these modes of exertion; volition, sensation, 
association, irritation. The powers of these, are called 
voluntary power, sensitive power, associative power, 
and irritative power. These conspire in almost everv 
course we use to execute any of our purposes. Vol- 
untary power and exertion are what I am altogether 
concerned with, in treating of the ascendancy of cus- 
tom. 

When one has been sitting at ease or sleeping for a 
longtime, there is an accumulation of that particular 
variety of power which constitutes the voluntary im- 
petus, the cause of volition Due exertion, to a due 
expenditure of this, gives ease, by removing desire, 
which is incipient volition. The removal of any de- 
gree of uneasiness, operates as a pleasure, and vice 
versa. Now this natural enjoyment having had place 
in any given action, the reflecting agent is inclined to 
a repetition of the like sort of action, and supposes 
pleasure in. it rather than in one not experienced be- 
fore. This is the original of our being attached to and 
pleas'd with, actions we have performed. Yet this is 
not the only source of the pleasures of custom. Va» 

*11 




rious pleasurable ideas are scattered along the whole 
appendage of our stage, and concomitate almost 
every transaction of our lives. Various notices occur 5 
which excite or suggest pleasure of some species or 
degree in connection with every step of our walks in 
the subserviency of favorite purposes, in such a man- 
ner as does not fail to affix the idea of pleasure to the 
efficiency of the prevailing pursuit. This prevails in 
recollection ; so that the mind chooses (has inevitably 
a prevailing desire) to resort back to the track where 
it has experienced pleasure, rather than rush into iin- 
tri'd ways. In the course of carrying into accomplish- 
ment my design, some objects present themselves to 
my apprehension, which induce pleasure: something 
appendant to the place, to the exercise, the company, 
or some suggestions made therein ; which are but the 
index of so many relations of the project ; which 
pleasurable ideas are in such a manner associated with 
the general notion of the action or duty itself that 
they are imputed to it as to a cause ; and, in reflection 
allure me to repeat. Again ; the action being repea- 
ted several times, is easier; because those pains and 
inconveniences which arise from a want ot a ready 
ultroneous coincidence of desire, determination, mus- 
cular movement, imagination, and sensation, and from 
the interference of reverse wishes, desires, specula- 
tions, which denote ignorance of the happy effects and 
true ways of proceeding in this, are hereby superseded. 
This facdity in the performance of any action, which 
arises from a particular repetition ofjit, is that which is 
called habit. Facility and readiness in performance 
acquired by successive repetition of any particular 
action, is call'd a habit of that action : as a habit of 
smoking a habit of reading, a habit of writing, a 
I. libit ot drinking* a habit of giving, a habit of study- 
ing, a habit of recollection, a habit of singing, a habit 
of walking, &c. 



! 



i%7 

These habits may be distinguished into abstract and 
incidental ;by which is meant little other than general 
and particular ; according as the subjects to which 
they pertain are species or sorts of action, or particu- 
lar actions determined to certain circumstantial con- 
comitants, whereof the objects and the means have 
the designation of individuality. Abstract habits art: 
habits of kinds or sorts of actions; as a habit of vol- 
untary thinking, a habit of virtue, a habit of trade, 
Incidental habits are habits of particular acts or per- 
formances that go to accomplish individual designs, 
the facility whereof is not by the repetition of these, 
transferred to others differently circumstanced : as a 
habit of playing upon a violin, a habit of dancing, a 
habit of going to a particular house, a habit of going 
to a church, a habit of working a particular machine 
for a certain end. These actions, however, are conver- 
tible to species.' The difference between abstract and 
incidental habits, is this, that those modes whereof the 
former are attributes, have an adaptation to a greater 
variety of individual motives, and a greater variety of 
apposite objects, being specifical patterns which agree 
to a greater number of particulars, than those of which 
the latter are attributes, are supposed to do. These 
general habits are furthermore distinguishable by se- 
veral degrees of those which are more or less com- 
prehensive by classification of different particular ac- 
tions to unity of motive and object : As 1st. a habit of 
motion ; 2d. a habit of voluntary motion ; Sd a habit 
of muscular motion ; 4th, a habit of a mechanic art. Or, 
1st. a habit of thinking. 2d. a habit of voluntary 
thinking ; 3d. a habit of contemplation : 4th. a habit of 
contemplating invisible objects ; a habit of studying 
astronomy : again ; a habit of virtue, a habit of benefi- 
cence, a habit of clemency, a habit of hospitality, a 
habit of almsgiving, a habit of forgiveness, a habit bf 
friendship, &c. 



128 

Habits are very frequently discriminated by the 
epithets that express the relations and tendencies of 
the actions of which they are ; as a bad habit, a good 
habit, a virtuous habit, a vicious habit, licentious ha- 
bits, industrious habits, studious habits, insolent habits, 
abstemious habits, a sedentary habit ; and we are ca- 
pable of as many distinct habits, as of distinct actions. 
Habits elude reflection. We do not so much as per- 
ceive (during their operation) any distinct ideas of 
the performing of ihose actions, or receiving of those 
impressions, to which we are habitually accustomed ; 
as those living within the sound of a cataract, or the 
surf by the shore of an open sea, are not perceptibly 
irritated by either, when they are inured to it. Habits 
are stengthened by continuance. The oftener any 
action is repeated, the greater are t'ie ease and 
promptness wherewith it is performed. The more 
any action is repeated, the greater proportion of our 
enjoyments depends upon it. Virtuous habits draw 
after them a train of good consequences, and vicious 
habits draw after them a train of evil consequences. 
To contract habits, is critically momentuous ; to en- 
gender vicious habits is dangerous : since we areas sure 
of drawing nearer to one of two great and increasing 
evils, by every repetition of a sinister pursuit, as we 
are of performing any such action : i. e. either the pain 
and privation of destroying the habit, or the misery 
consequent to the indulgence of it. Now I say 
this: it is possible to reverse habits. It is justly 
thought very difficult ; and indeed there be some habits, 
which, alter a certain length of continuance, at a cer- 
tain age and condition of the agent, I do not deny 
impossible to supersede by substantiating contrary de- 
sire ; not to mention that those habits are supposed to be 
understood to be altogether excepted from my account, 
which make a part of the nature of any being, and are, 
is it were ; woven into the constitution oi the agent ; as 



r; 



im 



motion, to the sensorium ; life and motion, to any or- 
ganized body; thinking in an intelligent being, &c. 
Habits less general than these, I have to do with. 

Since the greatest uneasiness of desire present, is 
what invariably determines the will upon action, the 
whole secret of this business (and where our efficiency 
must terminate) must consist in abating what is at pre- 
sent the usually prevailing one, and instating a reverse 
one in the same point, to prevail in its stead. The 
mechanical modus operandi to bring about this accom- 
plishment, is what I have at present to consider. The 
first thing to be done, is to exercise our understand- 
ings concerning the natural tendency of moral actions, 
whereby we may come to know some actions to be 
good and others bad ; and, of course, some habits to be 
disallowable and others commendable. The moral 
sense within us, decides at once on some actions ; the 
exercise of the reasoning faculty, study, and contem- 
plation, lay open the real nature and tendency of 
some; while our senses satisfactorily disclose the de- 
cided beauties and deformities, advantages and disad- 
vantages, of others. In every course of conduct to 
which we are habituated, there is a circle of action, 
divided by certain periodical points, whereat the de- 
sire to perform a given action, returns, v. g. Ifa man 
has repeatedly indulged himself to drink particular 
sort of stimulant drink at a certain hour of each day ; 
so constantly as that hour returns, returns his appe- 
tite for the like portion of stimulus; returns his desire 
with inveterate vehemence ; for extraordinary stimu- 
lus in the stomach produces that elevated activity 
which embraces a great variety and degree of pleasure. 
The animal spirits having worked through a certain 
routine of mancevres, limited variety of forms of ac- 
tion, as so many links of a chain, or catenary circle, 
come round with constancy to this conspicious one 
distinguished by more effective indulgence, which be- 



130 

mg that which has carried some eminent degree of plea- 
sure, here is evolved the grand impetus, overbalancing 
desire, the gratification whereof the more often and 
constantly is repeated, falls in with the greater ascen- 
dancy, the greater stress and urgency, to sustain the 
enjoyment of life. The same thing may be said of all 
sorts of accustomed actions. The same measure is 
applicable to the habits of all sorts of actions good 
and bad. Now, the only way to reverse a habit, is to 
break this circle of action. There are circles of every 
extent and description. In fact, there are biennial 
circles, annual circles, monthly circles, weekly cir- 
cles, quotidian circles, quite down to horory circles, 
of action; which almost every one may find himself 
within a greater or less degree of constraint, under 
the influence of that tyrant, custom, to revolve in. 
By breaking the circles of action to cure moral disor- 
ders, we take the same method as physicians do to cure 
diseases of the body : it being their business to break 
the circles of diseased physical action in the animal 
system, that by cassating a critical paroxysm, they 
may prevent its recurrence, till the tendency be lost, 
and a healthy action be introduced to supersede it. 
There are four ways of breaking circles of action. 
j First. By breaking every part of the circle at once ; 
directly seceding, and abstaining from every resem- 
blance of the action : as when, having habitually prac- 
ticed swallowing spirituous stimulus three times in a 
day, I disallow myself to taste any of the kind, at 
any time, and abstain from it altogether in every part 
of the day; nor indulge myself with any thing for a 
succedaneum,— i. e. 1 neither drink, eat, smoke, or 
snuff, at those times, nor any thing which operates to 
alleviate my uneasiness under the privation, except 
the exercise of my understanding. This is reckoned 
the best method in habits of drinking, using tobacco, 
and opium, and of gratifications of animal appetites ; 



131 



except in the extreme ascendancy of a habit of drink- 
ing, when spirits have become the sole food of the 
system : here, the sudden privation of them takes 
away the support of life at once. In this solitary ex- 
epuonable case, it is best to break the circle by gra- 
lual inroads The sauie strict mechanical constraint 
mst be us'd with children as we use with ourselves 

effectuate this abrupt overturn. It is obvious to re- 
flection that this is the only effectual method of des- 
roying such sort of habits; for a little indulgence is 

little feeding of a fire that you thereby keep alive, 

eady (on emergences) to break out with vehemence 

proportioned to the combustible materials lying thick 

animal life ,- which fire you make more subtle. It 
s, in a word, refining depravity by artful recourses. 
It may be objected that, by precluding a succedaneum, 

" leave the house empty.' 9 Never, while I cultivate 
exercise of mind ; which is the only track to true ha- 
rness. This entire decisive desistance from the ac- 
customed resort, has the effect in a few days, to wea- 
ken the appetite. The circle is now broken ; a chasm 

made, wherein the mind is impell'd to seek some 
ither resort to exhaust its voluntary power, and gra- 
tify itself with an accustomed exertion of its energies 
in employments less destructive. 

Secondly, by breaking one link at a time: in other 
words, cassating one division of the circle at once, and 
proceeding gradually. Thus, if you are habituated to 
sleep a nap at eleven o'clock of each day ; in the first 
place defer your sleep to a later hour, as that of two, 
or three. Now, you loosen the yoke at the first onset : 
for sleep being procrastinated by resolute voluntary 
thinking, (in the interim you have a struggle with 
contravening sensation) is fled, at that unusual hour; 

least there is little tendency to sleep. Next day, 
put your sleep by still an hour later ; and proceeding 
in this scale, by and by you hare sou ad sleep at a 




132 

proper hour, and early waking, which is both healthful, 
and profitable for the purposes of industry. Further- 
more ; if having indulged myself in the daily practice 
of taking an airing in a carriage at nine o'clock in the 
morning, and also another at three o'clock in the after- 
noon, which have the knack of supplying me with a 
large variety of ideas of one sort or other, the per- 
ception whereof is generally attended with a consider- 
able degree^ of pleasure; the return of those hours 
constantly brings with itself the inclination, and 
teasing urgency of pressing desire, to the same resort. 
From motives of study or virtue, or both, I have deli- 
berately resolved to expunge my morning emergence 
out of my diary, and stint myself to but one exercise 
of this kind in a day. The cassation of all that co- 
pious and enlivening imagery appertinent to my early 
excursion impresses a strong proclivity to melancho* 
ly, or else continual agitation of restlessness. Al- 
lowing myself no recourse but reflection on the nature 
and tendency of actions and things, the mind uncon- 
trollably seeks out some medium to get into its native 
element, of voluntary thinking and the pleasures of 
sense reflected by imagination, by finding a vent for 
its accumulated power, which shall produce an equi- 
librium of sensorial action. By and by, I discontinue 
my other flight after entertainment: and absistin^ 
from all vain digressions, utterly discard my old usage. 
In three or four days, my desire is less. In a few 
months, I have an aversion to that very thing, that 
was formerly so essential a part of my employment. 
Thus I compass a habit of the very reverse. This is 
the effectual reversion of habits, to fix a habit of the 
contrary in the place of another. So, out of a num- 
ber of successive days usually given up to certain 
pleasures, to change the appropriation of one, is break- 
ing a circle by the same way. These days may be 
annual: I will take away one by one t^cse inured 



133 

dishes the mind lias been feasted with, and, giving it 
to seek other food, it of course has other entertain- 
ment : * for the mind of man cannot pass from one ob- 
ject, without passing to another.' Let these rules be 
applied to every sort of disallowable action. Let all 
unheal thful, unsocial, and degrading actions be tried 
by the same measures, and followed by the like treat- 
ment. 

Thirdly. Another way is by diverting the man, in 
the first place, to different objects, to give him a habit 
opposite to, or incompatable with, the prevailing one. 
Thus, if being addicted to gaming, nightly, I force my 
attention aside upon books instead, and confining my- 
self hereto, give each night to reading the works of 
others, or putting down remarks thereon, I get the ha- 
bit of such exercises of mind* as abstract reflection, 
contemplation, study: which being contravenient to 
gaming, and inconsistent with it, my desire of gam- 
ing tails ; and by learning, and use, I have gotten so 
great a love for the former, that 1 have a greater de- 
sire to appropriate my nights to those than I have to 
appropriate them to the latter ; discontinue gaming 
without inconvenience ; and come to hate an extra- 
vagant and immoral practice. Here is one habit su- 
perseded by another, without any privation. This is 
one of the most valuable prerogatives of the true 
philosophy, to destroy habits without; pain, and with- 
out interruption of enjoyment. By this diverting the 
sweep of the voluntary impetus, by envolving objects 
that are more attracting than what usually prevail'd, 
we entirely elude the privations of an unprovided 
breaking. Yet instances of this kind are very rare : 
indeed it is a rare chance : the reason Is the deep hold 
habits get, on the affections ; as has been said with 
much significancy, * custom is a second nature.' 
Yet man, considered in his active character, is but a 
Va bundle of habits ;' for it is impossible for one to 
12 



134 

practice any thing constantly but lie has a habit of it ; 
and when one habit is removed, another will necessa- 
rily take the place of it, A habit of change will inter- 
pose at the least. Some thoughts, some motions, must 
take place during the waking hours of man's life ; and 
something must be done every day for its sustenance. 
So that it cannot be otherwise than that one thing or 
another is made habitual, and continually liable to grow- 
more and more so: and even in case one shall fix upon, 
and continue in, no one thing long enough to familiarize 
it, a habit of veering, and shifting from one thing to ano- 
ther, will effectually interpose, and take the place of all 
other habits. Locke suggested an opinion that the 
natural motion of the animal spirits, in their succes- 
sive impulsions on our sensitive and muscular organs, 
is the physical support of all habit. This appears 
when after having spoken of the inveteracy of fortu- 
itous associations when enforced by custom, he says, 
<( all which seem to be but trains of motions in the an- 
imal spirits, which once set agoing, continue on in the 
same track they have been used to, which by often 
treading is worn into a smooth path, when the motion 
in it becomes easy, and as it were natural." The ani- 
mal spirits I conceive to imply no other than the spirit 
of animation, which, by some accustomed proportions 
and forms, continually actuates the sensorium, to the 
developement of the general course of our prevailing 
desires, thoughts, determinations, and actions. Yet, 
all this is evidently modified by the use of our na- 
tural liberty. 

Fourthly. There is yet another indirect way of 
breaking a circle of action, by catenating pain to that 
point of the circle where the desire is habituated to 
centre. When the agent finds pain inseparably in- 
tervolv'd in that circumstantiality wherein he was wont 
to find the constant return of pleasure, he shrinks 
from th* medium of this, and thence contracts a* 



435 

aversion from the very resort h# has been accustomed 
to tend into with all the energy of his affection, by be- 
ing averse to that which his pleasure is apt to bring 
along with it. The instituting of pain to follow any 
particular sort of disallowable action in those we have 
the disposal of, is frequently us ? d with the happiest 
effects: which, by interjoining an adverse part in the 
circle, at the same time abates the appetite, which con- 
stitutes the whole force that keeps together the con- 
catenation in its original order ; and interrupts and 
varies the course of the effects. This is the original 
of punishments. Of these there are as many varie- 
ties as there are varieties of pain ; any sort of pain 
that can be annexed as a consequence of an action, 
serving for a punishment. Shame, disgrace, horror, 
contrition, hunger, thirst, confinement, as well as 
violent pains of body, come under this head. There 
be some cases which require force, and yield to none 
but violent pain. There is a fashionable way of ap- 
plying force, to impress an idea of authority. Every 
tiling in this world, is recognized by the law of fash- 
n. Some are of opinion that procrastinating the 
rrection of a child till his guilt has accumulated 
the weight of a challenge that drags upon him, through 
the, testiness and indignation of a clamorously threat- 
ening yet pusillanimously forbearing parent, a severe- 
ly painful chastisement, nurtures malice: bringing on 
a daring imperious sulleness, that yet covers subtle 
machinations. This opinion seems to be supported by 
visible facts. We may account for such a production, 
on the following principles : 

I. In the first place, the child gets a perception of 
the parent's pusillanimity; and to this, a practice of 
abortive fulmination notic'd, is apt to superinduce 
some degree of indignation. The mind of the child 
being thus prepared, is ready, on the receipt of vio- 
lence from its parent, to plot retaliation; no longer 



130 

Y.eckonimg as a superior instructor and guide, the per- 
son who gave him life snd sustain'd it ; but as an equal 
and an adversary. 

2. The infant is become familiar with the ideas of 
vindictive violence, of painful punishments, of exas- 
perating threats, of revilings ; and in consecution, the 
ideas of means to elude, are made familiar to the child. 
This is a predisposition to subtilty. 

3. The receipt of great violence, confirms his cor- 
rupt notions of causation, and of common custom in 
moral modes. He is persuaded that his chastisement 
accrued from violent anger and hate, and thus goes to 
estimate his parent inferior to himself in respect of 
Self-government: whereupon he sets out to practice 
with him as with a junior adversary whom he des- 
pises while he hates, (yet fears, for his strength,) by 
opposing stratagem to violence, to accomplish pur- 
poses of revenge. The contrary extreme has similar 
effects, or more contracting. Too frequent chastise- 
ment is as wide from good discipline as that which 
being too seldom, falls in with the weight of cruelty ; 
by too long procrastination the tutor's mind being 
soured and his affections estranged, through his own 
ridiculously imprudent managery. A constant repe- 
tition of mechanical correction, hardens the heart, 
benumbs generous feeling, and represses the seeds of 
delicate properties latent in humanity, which by the 
tutelage of wisdom, might be brought up to such 
splendid productions as embellish and glorify the hu- 
man character. I have enlarged the more on this head, 
because the art of reversing habits, constitutes a mo- 
mentous habilitation in the department of forming 
character : the greatest part of the business of educa- 
tion consisting in destroying habits, and introducing 
others to the places of these. For if man be neces- 
sarily about the repeating of some actions during his 
waking; it follows he necessarily has a number p? ha- 



187 

bits. If man have habits, they are either good or bad. 
If bad, they must be destroyed in order to accomplish 
a correct education : if good, it was a part of that 
education to form them. Therefore the greatest part 
of the business of education, is the forming and un- 
forming of habits. There is a gradual formation of 
habits, from birth, without design ; i. e. without the 
design of forming such habits : the most whereof either 
not coinciding with, or else directly counterplotting, 
the genuine scheme of social happiness, which is the 
greatest object the world admits of, have need to be 
reverted and destroyed, in order to finish education. 
By putting away one habit, we admit another. Either 
some other particular habit, a habit of reflection, o*' 
else a habit of levity, necessarily grows out of that 
cassation. What a copious field of study, then ; what 
an important post of vigilence thi«! A habit ot virtue 
is the grand object we labor at. This ought to be the 
universal goal of all who presume to adjuvate the de- 
sign of education. This includes a perfect prompt- 
ness to any and every action that is morally good ; 
otherwise, that aptly subserves the finished purpose of 
social happiness. This habit rises on the habit of 
contemplating, and meditating the nature of things 
and actions, as its natural foundation. But it is brought 
up by mechanical compulsory manuduction into ex- 
trinsical subserviency ; as children, before they are 
competent to such a purpose, must be constrained by 
discipline into such acts as the same modes which are 
used in the service of the purpose, till they are made 
habitual. This is tending into the thing from exte- 
rior beginnings. A habit of virtue is not so easy to 
attain as many imagine. It is very sublime and very 
multivious. Virtue is that sort of voluntary exertion 
that tends more or less directly to promote social hap- 
piness. Virtue is discriminated by its relation to this 
object It is a tendency towards the accomplishment 



138 

of this object, that properly discriminates virtue : and 
the reason is, that, man is naturally a social being ; and 
his sympathy renders it impossible for him to be happy 
independently of the consideration of the feelings of 
others. The more direct and efficient the tendency, 
the greater is the degree of virtue. Obedience to the 
law of nature, promotes this object; therefore virtue 
includes relation of our actions to the law of nature. 
A prescript or law in nature, commanding one action 
and forbidding 'another, with a reward and penalty 
annexed to the observance and infringement, may seem 
not so clear and consistent language as to be readily 
comprehended. But this is, in fact, what all other 
laws are by assumption and secondary conformation : 
for herein is solid authority and irresistible power to 
carry into effect these promises and threats to which 
language is so essential to give an air and figure in 
other laws. There is power in fire to decompose our 
bodies, and destroy life; consequently it is against 
the law of nature to thrust any part of our bodies into 
the space occupied by burning bodies. We ieel the 
pains of other beings of our kind by reflection and 
sympathy: consequently it is against the law of na- 
ture to injure our fellow creatures. 

In fact, here is the reality ; the original of all laws : 
the primordial prototype of all rational prescripts. 
The tyrant depends on the eternal properties of mut- 
ter, to be able to execute his threats. If steel had not 
the power to divide the fibres of living flesh when, 
under a due impulse, it is brought into contact with 
it, vain were his institutes ot torture. This law of 
nature is nothing but relative properties of matter in- 
variably radicated in all natural beings, and the es- 
tablished order of causes and effects, depending there- 
on. That part of this law, that relates to the casuality 
and consequences of our voluntary free actions, may 
J>e called the moral law of nature. The relation of 



our actions compared and referd to the law of nature* 
as they agree or disagree to it, is called virtue or vice, 
sin or holiness. Virtue is either general or definite* 
General ov abstract virtue is simply the kind or sort of 
action distinguished from all others only by this one 
discrimination, tendency to promote, directly or indi- 
rectly, social happiness, as an object to a motive : as 
virtue, virtuous conduct. Definite denotes all those 
particular varieties of action which being comprehen- 
ded in the import of the other, are distinguished from 
it by secondary criteria : as temperance, charity, meek- 
ness, industry, &c. In short, virtue in its abstract 
sense, means that kind or sort of moral action, or in 
other words, any free voluntary action, that tends di- 
rectly or indirectly to promote social happiness con- 
sidered as an object to a motive ; and which herein 
agrees to the law of nature. In its particular or defi- 
nite sense, it designates particular deeds or varieties 
of such action, with discriminative names : thus any 
such action or course of actions, as serves the pur- 
pose of social happiness, and tends any way to ad- 
vance that end, is called a virtue. A certain sort of 
motion or thought marked by some good passion, or 
some good object had in view to which that action 
tends, is called a virtue. The virtues are distinguished 
into private and social Private virtue is that which 
seems to have for its proximate end, # the private ad- 
vantage of ourselves, families, and connexions; as 
the preservation and security of our life and comfort. 
The private virtues are temperance, continence, clean- 
liness, industry, frugality, fortitude, patience. Yet 
these have a more or less conspicous bearing as remote 
applicatives to the object social happiness. Social 
virtue is that whose primary and proximate end is the 
good of our fellow creatures. The final end may be 
our own happiness that necessarily depends on the 
promotion of that object. The social virtues are 



philanthropy, hospitality, patriotism, justice gratitude, 
charity, meekness. Virtue is furthermore distinguished 
Into speculative and active. Speculative virtue is 
either contemplation of great ami worthy pursuits and 
benignant schemes ; good desires, good wishes ; form- 
ing good purposes ; cultivation of sympathy by cherish- 
ing good passions and benignant emotions, as sorrow 
for past sins, condolence, joy in the good of others i. 
e. joy aptly accompanying the idea of others' good. «#c- 
tive virtue is the determination of the will upon the 
execution of those purposes and the mechanical ap- 
plication of the subordinate organs in the subservien- 
cy of this determination : As giving to the poor ; pro- 
viding comfortable subsistence for strangers ; diligent 
improvement of time to secure means to communicate 
happiness or to procure leisure to carry on some good 
design ; volunteering in the service of one's country 
in the field of public defence. Some particular vir- 
tues are purely speculative; some, purely active; 
while some partake of both the one and the other of 
those characters. Philanthropy when simply specu- 
lative, is variously expressed by benevolence, and 
benignity ; — when it becomes an active virtue, it 
takes such names as beneficence, munificence, liber- 
ality, generosity, &c. Speculative virtue includes the 
idea of voluntary thinking. For without act of 
the will, which distinguishes free agents, there is no 
virtue : neither merit nor demerit, praise nor blame, 
penalty nor reward, being rationally applicable to ac- 
tions altogether necessary, motions depending in no 
degree upon volition; any more than honour or hap- 
piness is applicable to the drops of rain which fructi- 
fy our fields ; which yet they are no way susceptible 
of. Voluntary exertion is essential to virtue and to 
vice. Some virtues are apparantly negative : as omit- 
ting or refraining to do evil : and this is voluntary. 
Some indeed seem to be mere qualities or relations of 



141 

our actions; as fortitude. Yet there will ever be 
found voluntary act in them, from which they get all 
their merit. Some voluntary thought or motion, is es- 
sential in them. Even submission, forbearance, quick- 
ness in place of tardiness', contempt of obstacles, 
perseverance, resistance of inticements, are all vol- 
untary acts. And upon the same principle it is said 
with truth, that ' omitting to do good, is committing 
evil.' 

Now, such a thorough habit as makes all such sorts 
of actions easy and agreeable, and makes us find pos- 
itive pleasure in them, is a great object to compass. 
This requires great energy of application, and criti- 
cal vigilence. Such a habit as that whereby one should 
be prompt and ready at all times and places to per- 
form every action of such sort as tends to social hap- 
piness and is conformable to the law ot nature, is an 
exalted point of refinement in art, for humanity to 
gain. It is the business of a well conducted educa- 
tion, by gradual discipline training and moulding the 
powers and affections of man into an apt complacent 
concord to the laws of nature in his own constitution, 
and that of neighbouring beings deliberately explored 
by the eye of unwarp'd sapience. I say one general 
habit of nil these sorts of action, that should make 
easy and optable any and every thought and deed that 
is morally good (now good is positive, as production 
of pleasure ;or negative, as diminution of pain) would 
seem to be a constitutional habit ; and require a 
change of the very nature of the creature. And such 
is the peccancy of our race, that some have thought it 
impracticable for men of themselves, to acquire this 
habit : and that there must be a new creation of the man 
before such a thing can take place. Indeed our de- 
generacy, our universal apostacy from rectitude is 
&uch, that in moral education we have little else but 
clearing away our ground, of the rubbish of bad hab* 



14£ 

its: reversing habits already engendered, being that 
which takes up almost the whole attention and ener- 
gy of those who are engaged in this department. 
And what makes these worse, i. e. more formidable, is 
the persuasion that they are part of natue. Such 
is the power of custom ; such the fixedness of nature's 
prescripts. I trust there has been said heretofore suffi- 
cient to evince the practicability of reversing habits ; 
which, if it be so, proves plainly that these bad habits 
are not a part of our nature. Man necessarily is 
equally susceptible of pleasure and pain, because both 
the one and the other are the same direction of motion 
in the sensor rum ; i. e. a sweep from the extreme parts 
towards the centre ; they being, discriminatively, but 
relative degrees of this motion, referred to a distinct 
subject ; which distinct subject must be either the im- 
mediately preceding general moving of the fluids of 
the system, or the present prevailing one. Men are 
equally liable to transgress, and conform to, the law 
of nature. For liberty being power to do what one 
will, he. is no longer a free agent than he has this power 
of doing evil and good, in equal degree. It may bo 
here asked, why has man the power to choose evil r 
Wherefore is man susceptible to desire and to will that 
which is evil ? I answer, because he is susceptible of 
ignorance ; he is not born with thorough skill in the 
physical and moral laws of nature ; which is saying 
little more than that man is man; or that such a 
being as man, exists. For man is a progressive being : 
progressive in his capacity, and in the adscititious ei, « 
dowments of that capacity. Where there is maturity, 
there can be no progression. This profection or ad- 
vancing forward in the accumulation of knowledge, is 
incompatible with the idea of mature knowledge and 
ability. Therefore because, being ignorant of some 
parts of the law of nature, he is by reason of this ig- 
norance liable to mistake good for evil, he is liable to 



143 

incline to, and desire, that which being repugnant t% 
the moral law of nature, works contrary to the con- 
servation of his existence, and the consummation of its 
enjoyment. 

Habits may be revers'd. The methods I have- 
above mentioned, I think comprehend the chief of the 
most efficacious expedients for -changing habits. If the 
practical repetition of action produces habit, why shall 
not the practical repetition of one sort of action pro- 
duce habit, as well as that of another ? If a bad habit 
can be attain'd, a good one can :and if one good habit 
can be acquir'd, a thousand can likewise be acquired. 
So, also, if one habit can be revers'd, every habit can 
be revers'd. Therefore it is practicable for man to attain 
a habit of virtue. For if repetition of action produces 
habit ; discontinuing to repeat action, prevents it, and 
since it is impossible for the intelligence of man to be 
idle in his waking hours but that it is still repeating 
some action ;— of course, by forcing the energy and 
of will and understanding to the voluntary^ repeating 
of good actions instead of bad ones, he forms good 
habits. He has got such a tricky and he cant break 
himself, is a very common saying : — J have a habit by 
long use y and can't put it away, is a sentiment too 
commonly entertain'd. This is the subterfuge which 
gives resl to those who are averse to adventuring on 
any enterprize for improvement, and to those whose 
hearts are fully set in+hem to do evil. 

There are five habits particularly incident to be 
contracted by children, of which we ought to consi- 
der the importance of being on our guard against the 
ascendancy, on account of their ruinous consequences, 

I. A habit of usingViolence on the receipt of an af- 
front or disappointment ; as squealing, tearing, striking 
with the fist, crying, &c. The children of this world 
ar<e so far from philosophizing on the rise and nature 
fcf this sort of facts, that they even set down conten- 



144 

ted io the persuasion of this vague opinion, that it i 
impossible to keep children quiet when they are very 
young. They persuade themselves of an impossibility 
of making children perfectly tranquil in their infancy. 
Instances make directly against them, however ; but 
they attribute these instances to anomalous causes ; 
not discerning the efficacy of method, in relation to so 
desirable a state of things. It has been withrmixed sen- 
sations of regret and chagrin that I Have often heard ex- 
perienced dames confidently and seriously advance 
such erroneous doctrine, wherein they confessed their 
imbecility in concluding themselves unable to keep 
peace in their own households. For my own part, it 
has sometimes appeared very astonishing to me that 
it was possible for such, without scruple, to work prac- 
tically against the law of nature, in suffering their 
hands to be (by mere storge) habitually stayed 
from that salutary correction on their children, which 
their insolence daily calls for: which what ever pre- 
tence to sanctity they may show, indubitably proves 
that they worship the beauty of their beloved favorites 
more than any thing else, and their fancies idly dote on 
the pleasures attending their production and nursing. 
A habit growing out of this, is that of speaking with 
admiration and making remarks on every thing the 
little ones say extempore ; which blows up pride, and 
several inordinate calculations in the latter, from the 
aspiring pinnacle of which, by and by they are to fall, 
and have pity from none, but rather to grumble at 
providence because none cares for their rise. There 
be several methods may conduce to the tranquility of 
infancy; but when this habit of bawling and crying 
has got footing, it is necessary to proceed to punish- 
ment. Some make a feint of punishing, as others do 
of gifts. Punishment should be certain, invariably 
following the sentence : and seasonable, applied at the 
precise time when it is deserved. Punishment should 



445 

not be injurious; as fractures, dislocations, bruises, 
stuperfaction ; yet sufficiently painful to make an af- 
fecting impression, and make the subject sensible of 
what it is done for; to this end, it should appear, in 
some cases to be sensuously affecting to the punisher, 
and often accompanied with other exegetical signs. 

Tim habit, I say may be reversed by the superin- 
iluction of pain as a conspicuous adjunct, according 
to the fourth of the foregoing methods. 

2. A habit of contradiction. This habit begins in 
the unlimited license of speaking, which is generally 
flattered rather than checked, and this for the mere 
sport the young articulators afford by their oddities* 
and takes its first degree in disputes that take place 
among children one with another, where nothing is 
more easy and natural when they differ in their con- 
ceptions, than roundly to give the lie. It is presently 
considered a way of honouring themselves; he that 
has the last word, pluming himself with the pre emi 
nence of understanding or authority. The practice 
of this very thing, breeds the primordials of animosi- 
ties ; nurses pride, irrascibility, hatred, and envy. But 
the odiunv of this not being noticed nor exposed by- 
affecting them (by method) with a sense of the folly 
and turpitude of such vile communication, this man- 
ner of replication by and by takes aim at parents and 
guajdians themselves, which is less grateful to come 
in this direction, from the mouths of their darlings : 
by dint of custom, nevertheless, it becomes tolerable, 
and in process of time, grows even to be agreeable, as 
most other habitefel things do. In societies where pro- 
fanity and ribaldry prevail generally among the young, 
this being (to appearance) innocent in comparison with 
profane blasphemous expressions which are common, 
people are temper^ to connive at it. Thus thousands 
of families grow up with manners disgustful to all 
cultivated observers; from habits of impertinent fa* 



146 

miliarities between offspring and stock, that trample 
the authority of the former, and eclipse their dignity in 
profound contempt. Clemency in the government of 
children, should be reserved. The considerate will 
be scrupulous of tolerating so glaring insolence as 
giving the lie to a parent or guardian. One connivance 
paves the way to a thousand aggressions. Tbtrper- 
petrators of the crime enlarge upon the species, — and 
extend their plan. Adolescence is the period when 
every degree of liberty is wont to be reckoned a guar- 
antee from supervisors to follow the dictates of incli- 
nation, and obey the impulsion of natural emotions: 
for they not possessing the power of judging correctly 
of moral relations, what rational ground have we to 
expect them to observe any other rule of estimate in 
this respect, than the approbation of their superiors? 
Permission operates as approbation. Now, they love 
the approbation of those from whom they derive their 
sustenance and enjoyments. The way to convince 
children of the criminal unreasonableness of this 
odious practice of contradiction, is to exemplify our 
disapprobation, not by argumentation which they can- 
not comprehend, nor by asking why do you thus? 
Why do you speak so ? but, while their apprehensions 
are incapable of taking in impressive views of remote 
consequences, by instituting pain to follow as an im- 
mediate consequent ; which will have the knack of 
interrupting the wonted circle of action, and eventu- 
ally destroy it. Thus this habit may be reversed. 

3. A habit of torturing animals. I know not what 
cause the peculiar delightfulness of this employ first 
originates from, unless it be the idea of superior power 
(in the relation of acquisition, to^he children's own 
pride) which the contrast of littTe weak creatures 
yielding to their touch, with their own size and abili- 
ties, aftbrds. The love of power balefully gets rooted 
before sympathy assumes her full efficiency in moral 



147 

views ; of else this propensity is hereditary. May 
not sympathy be made to keep pace with the love, of 
power, which is self love and pride? Is it not possible 
to improve sympathy to an equal degree of influence 
with that of this festering propensity and attachment 
to pre-eminence ? Sympathy, reflectively extended to 
the feelings of fellow beings, is mora!. In case of 
cruelty in infants, this sympathy gets no prevalence 
at all, on voluntary actions, before this love of emi- 
nence in power, gets into that operation that makes 
the destruction of insects and other small animals, 
pleasing, by proving the comparative strength of their 
murderers. Carniverous beasts kill for sustenance. 
Man kills for amusement. Carniverous beasts kill 
their weaker fellows for sustenance. Man, for pas- 
time. More savage than the lions 5 and leopards' 
whelps of the wilderness, he inflicts torture and death 
on inferior sorts of animals, without expectance of the 
least benefit. Fiies, wasps, robins, wrens, rabbits, 
and green snakes promiscuously fall a sacrifice to his 
sanguine caprice, which makes him take an inhuman 
sort of delight in the downfall of unoftending inferiors. 
Cruelty to the brute creation, is akin to cruelty to hu- 
man beings. Indulged in adolescency, it generates 
tin* principles of tyranny, extortion, oppression, and 
implacable pervivacity. The practice of this very in- 
dulgence, constitutes one formidable obstacle to the 
improvement of sympathy.- and to this we owe the 
general hardness of mankind ; the -want of compas- 
sion and compunction, which makes them untraceable 
to persuasory insinuations of moderate reasoners* 
Example of parents not unfrequently insinuates this 
vile disposition into children, whom they suffer to wit- 
ness the killing of innocent animals, while none in- 
forms them that those creatures have similar feelings 
with their own, and thus educes an exercise of their 
sympathy. Hence, we think of the killing of a lamb; 



148 

a calf, or a turkey, without any more emotion than of 
the cutting of a sallad, the felling of an oak, or the 
plucking of a melon* Thus, the habit is acquired by 
imitation and the most natural of all associations, thai 
of their first and dearest attachments. Beware then 
parents how you principle your children with cruelty 
and hardness of heart. Fancy not it will simply make 
them confident and manly to open to their view* scenes 
of slaughter before you teach them to reason. To me, 
it seems no very difficult operation to supersede this 
aptitude to treat with violence the bodies of weaker 
ajijmals, by the intervention of the power of sympa- 
thy. Pathetic inculcation will do in many cases; but, 
on the accession of inveteracy, we must resort to re- 
tributive pain. 

4. A habit of intemperance. The custom of shift- 
ing children has three bad effects : it weakens the con- 
stitution ; generates a habit of gluttony and drunken- 
ness ; while it gives ascendancy to the baser parts of 
animal nature over the ennobling operations of reflec- 
tion. For what is a stuff ? d child more than a beast? 
And is he not worse than a beast, in that having power 
to plot, by virtue of superior reason, he is master of 
more means of disturbance ? "Lest 1 be full and deny 
thee," was an ingenuous concession of the liability of 
human rfature to be corrupted by luxury and superflu- 
ous gratifications. Never to let children know hun- 
ger and thirst, is to prevent their sympathizing with 
distress of those kinds. Pampering and nursing un- 
reasonable appetites, incurs clamour, and thoughtless 
expression 4 ; and a physical reason is obvious ; a sur- 
charge of the stomach and other organs, excites the 
recourse of voluntary energy to counteract a painful 
suppression, which, in some degree, never fails to at- 
tend plethory of.. .the animal system. For all stuffing, 
crowding, or urging the vessels or organs of the body 
faster than they can convert aliment into blood, or 



149 

blood into other finer substances, directly induce ob 
struction, and retard that tree gentle circulation of the 
fluids, propitious to serenity. Now, voluntary motion 
being contrary to sensation, tends to lessen pain, by in- 
terruption, and likewise 4)y dividing the sensorial 
power of the system : hence loud and harsh speaking 
'like the piercings of a sword, 5 hallooing, yelling, ob- 
streperious conviviality, amongst children: it being 
their labour, that helps them to digest that load of ali- 
ments which crowds them as a sort of goads, to violent 
exertion. Also a stufPd stomach presses the lungs so 
that it is impossible for them to speak audibly but by a 
strong impetus. One thing that encourages this habit, 
is the practice of rewarding children for their worthy 
acts, with sweetmeats, cakes, &c. instead of praise, 
friendship, books, and such things as would improve 
their minds and morals, at the same time that they 
would excite them to exercise themselves in the duties 
of their station. 

5. A habit of lying. This odious habit subtly gets 
ground very early in those who are tolerated in much 
prattling ; when, their first abberations from strict 
verity not being impressively marked out as objects of 
abhorrence and scandal by their dearest patrons and 
admirers, they soon and easily come to reckon an in- 
different thing to speak contrary to what they think ; 
which never being punished, how should the dear little 
chatterers know it to be a crime ? Directly, it comes 
about to serve some desirable end of theirs, to repre- 
sent to another party, ideas different from what they 
have in their minds, or put together their words and 
ideas different from the relation they perceive between 
them : then they have a reason; and this, even allow- 
ing they begin to feel some faint vellications of the 
moral sense, whispering them ' it is not perfectly equi- 
table', is to them more satisfactory than no reason at 
all: now if they can get some favorite object by mis- 

*13 



130 

representing their thoughts and deluding their com- 
panions, escape some task, or screen themselves from 
some accusation or punishment, they begin to think 
the end justifies the means : Which manner of judg- 
ing, determining, and speaking, soon grows habitual. 
Thus injustice gets a strong root very early in the sea- 
son of life; which if not checked, presently spreads 
into the most malevolent slanders, perfidious swind- 
ling, and deep plotted delusions of avaricious men. 
When the habit has got that pitch that shame, com- 
punction, or a sense of honour, cannot be worked into 
an operation strong enough to revert the inclination, 
severe chastisement is necessary to be applied. A 
mark of disgrace or contempt, early set on it, would 
be very salutary. But so far are some parents from 
impressing their children with the real scandal of ly- 
ing, that they set them a pattern of the very thing. 

From what has been heretofore said, this further re- 
flection arises. Habit may be an attribute of every 
one of our trains of ideas. From the fourfold opera- 
tion of the sensorium, by its capacity of irritation, of 
sensation, of volition, and of association, arise i certain 
trains of ideas, which are denominated by the modes 
and capacities from which they have their original ex- 
citation. An idea that takes place in consecution to 
that motion which is the consequence of the contrec- 
tation of external bodies on the extreme terminations 
of the sensory, is called an irritative idea. An idea 
that takes place in consecution to that mode of the 
sensorial motions that is called sensation, is called a 
sensitive idea. An idea that takes place in consecu- 
tion to voluntary exertion, is called a voluntary idea. 
And an idea that takes place in consecution to that 
exertion that connects ideas, and connects other 
movements, in such sort that one follows or comcomi- 
tates another, is called an associative or associate 
idea. 



151 

Trains of these, are called irritative trains, sensi- 
tive trains, voluntary trains, and trains of association, 
or associative trains. These trains are reciprocally 
interrupted, and one, as it were, runs into another ; so 
that there are trains compounded of all these varieties 
of ideas. Thp predominance of either one or other 
of these in the usual tenour of our intellectual oper- 
ations, is . a general habit of a peculiar way of think- 
ing ; a cast of mind. Within the significancy of this 3 
are several particular habits ; as a habit of anticipa- 
tion ; a habit of forgetting some sorts of ideas and of 
remembering others, &c. Here are circles of action. 
Those in whom the irritative trains prevail mostly, i. 
e. in whom ideas of this sort most take place and em- 
ploy more of the sensorial energy than any other sorts, 
are such as are given to be fretful and snappish ; gene- 
rally good mechanics, and men of nice observation. 

Those in whom the sensitive trains prevail, are the 
sorrowful, the sensuous, the sensual, the melancholy^ 
and the malicious. 

Those in whom the voluntary trains take place 
mdst, afford us specimens of enterprize : such as have 
distinguished themselves by magnanimity; among 
whom are some of the greatest philanthropists. 

In whom the associative trains prevail, we find 
prompt memories, Of these are the orators and 
poets. 

Hence the propriety of those descriptions which de- 
nominate one habit, a melancholy habit, another an 
indolent habit : — some, habits of gloomy reflection,, 
habits of pertinancy, of change, a versatile habit, & 
habit of sullenness,a habit of constancy. 



153 



CHAPTER. IV. 

Of Improvement of Institutes. 

The word institute I use to denote something fixed 
and established with general consent, whether a re- 
lation, mode, or substance, or a combination of any of 
these, used as a mean or medium for the promotion of 
education. As a system of geometry ; a school. 

There are four kinds of institutes : I. Parental gard ; 
II. Books ; III. Seminaries ; and IV. Religious es- 
tablishments. 

I shall take notice of what particular ways each 
of these is manifestly abused, or evidently wanting, 
with reference to its object ; and mention some of those 
particulars wherein I think they may be amended, or 
more advantageously applied. 

First, parental gard. This institute is partly from 
nature, and partly from human resolve and concur- 
rence. The patriarchal government in China, from 
time immemorial, extends to the full controul of the 
child's temporal course, equally to any popular insti- 
tution. Yet the father is a monarch over his family ; 
which is contrary to nature : it being repugnant to the 
inoraHaw which contemplates the preservation of the 
species, and the extension of its enjoyment, not only 
for one man to tyrannize over any of his fellow crea- 
tures, by circumscribing in any degree their natural 
liberty of conscience which results to them from the 
possession of common properties radicated in their 
constitution by authority of the physical law, but, fur- 
thermore, is manifest usurpation for any parent to e:x« 



153 



ercise juridical authority over his children after their 
arriving at the age of manhood, which in civilized com- 
munities is generally fixed at twenty- one years, and 
I think, with good reason ; for it is just that the child 
before he encumbers himself with the cares and obliga- 
tions of parentage, shoukrstay to make some amends 
to his own parent for his sustenance and education, by 
the offices of filial gratitude, which in themselves con* 
centrate a reciprocation of sublime happiness. There- 
fore this institute, placing children in the condition of 
dependance on their originals for sustenance and initi- 
ation in science, which is established partly by the 
law of nature, and partly by human laws, is perfectly 
opposite to implicit views in the general constitution 
of animated nature. For, in the first place, the off- 
spring is not capable, for the want of knowledge and 
strength, to preserve its existence: and this institution 
well manag'd, secures the perfection of what appears 
to be universally designed as the final goal of all con- 
stitutional modes and measures, which is the preserva- 
tion of existence, and consummation of enjoyment. 
This is an important thing with parents. The obliga- 
tion this brings parents, is critical. This thing is 
abus'd, to the daily depravation of human intelligences : 
a repression of their parts, and perversion of their 
endowments to base pursuits. This institute is abused 
several ways. 

f. By parents neglecting to use compulsion and re- 
straint with infants. Parents defer coercive measures 
to force their infant children into such modes of sub- 
sistence and action as are essentials in the ceremr- 
nial applicatives of virtuous purposes; but are inured 
to allow scope to their spontaneous advances, as if 
they would grow into virtue, as stature, the first light 
of nature guiding them to what is good, when it in fact 
directs them (at the present posture of human society) 
in the exactly reverse course: for how can it be Ima- 



154 

gined that the infant, not knowing that it is just and 
reasonable that he should sit still and eat his meals in 
one place, go to his rest at regular hours, be inoffen- 
sive, submissive, and quiet, shall go ultroneously into 
the practice of such duties, which being repeated have 
an invincible tendency to habit ? For there is scarce 
a mode of exerting our powers and parts, that is not to 
be made both easy, and in some degree agreeable, by 
custom. But in fact he is impulsed to clamour, to 
gluttony, to irregularity* to disobedience, to heartiness, 
to violent motions. All these have their natural causes; 
but there is a train of causes and effects that reaches' to 
the consummation of human enjoyment ; and this is 
our moral law of nature. To address him with lan- 
guage, is trifling: and it is absolutely indispensable to 
confine him by unreserved cons raint, to a mechanical 
compliance with such rules and prescripts as the pa- 
rent and nurse knowing to be good, the child's appre- 
hension is incapable of receiving and appling by means 
of their address. Thte mechanical conformity soon 
becomes habitual ; and those manners which for the 
well being of the family and their own future en- 
joyment, are absolutely necessary for children to 
practice, are now learned at a much cheaper and more 
advantageous rate, than after other habits having taken 
place, must be pre-requisitely reversed, they would 
be compassed at the beck of deliberate reflection. If 
parents would compel their children to a regular 
course of action ; and addict them at least to regular- 
ity in all those repeated resorts and exercises that 
pertain to their subsistence, a great deal would be 
done towards laying a solid foundation of active vir- 
tue. It is proper that pain should be instituted to in- 
variably follow any capricious and useless violence, as 
crying, from trifling inconvenience (most especially 
when from the impulse of anger) that if the child can- 
notbemade to apprehend any other thing that shall 



155 

persuade him that it is proper and necessary to be si* 
lent, he- may be induc'd to consider the urgency of it 
as a recourse to avert his own sufferance, and, though 
he yet cannot know the reason, comply, at his peril : 
which silence when habituated, is propitious to domes- 
tic tranquility not only, but eminently goto a purpose 
of contemplation, which is in future to adorn and exalt 
the mind of the child's self. Regularity in hours of 
eating, sleeping, shifting of clothes, washing, and in 
quantity and quality of diet, is a consideration of in- 
fluential moment. 

il By actually humouring them to the most deprav* 
ing gratifications. It is a subject of admiration to 
see those people who appear on several occasions to be 
affected with a deep sense of immortality and the 
eternal w r eal of spiritual things, treating their offspring 
daily as if they had no souls at all : for it is not easy 
to conceive what idea they have in their heads, of the 
intelligent part, the soul, the understanding, of any of 
their children, when they are habitually using them as 
play-things, gratifying all their irregular desires, nurs- 
ing their worst passions by countenancing those violent 
sallies of volition wherein these are accustomed to find 
their exhaustion. One would think they were essaying 
to make daemons of them in good earnest, or consid- 
ered them as mere apes. Let not such people say 
much of the nature of tw s ul ; for it is in the nature 
of the soul to have bad passions, and the nature of 
these to grow by gratification. The fact is, the pa- 
rent allows the ideas of that pleasure which attended 
the origin of them, and of the endeared scenes of 
courtship, too strongly to coalesce with the ideas of 
the persons of these children ; by which associations 
he is constantly impulsed to inticing caresses, the scope 
whereof being his own private sensitive pleasure, a 
serene sort of exhileration of his own spirits, admits 
no scrutiny of the motives and emergence of moral 



156 

qualities they call forth or cherish. He considers not 
that love and joy should not be fixed to frivolous and 
evanescent things ; that angry emotions should be re- 
pressed, instead of being cherish'd. He goes so far as 
^o set them apish patterns, and drill them to such 
monkey tricks as can have no pretence to any other 
object than amusement; enters the lists among them 
in play, but considers not that though all these mance- 
vres are mere diversion to himself, they are important 
business to the children. 

Men are too apt to make themselves the standards of 
all persons when considering their thoughts and feel- 
ings. I would not totally disuse this sort of applica- 
tions : when considered with a view to ground some 
useful mechanical arts by familiarizing their proper 
movements when the parts are ductile, they are lauda- 
ble. But when tending to excite extravagant laughter, 
or joy on immoment considerations, to foster resent- 
ment, countenance clamour, or to iudulge children in 
such mancevres and set them such patterns as attach 
the passions love, fear, hope, joy, anger, &c. to impro- 
per objects, they are imminently pernicious. This 
capricious playing with children has a tendency to 
these two capital effects, which are so universally to 
be deprecated: 1st. It gives them a playfulness, a 
pr oneness to play, in the privation of which they are 
encumbered with ennui, ami aversion to some objects 
inseparable from common life. 2d. It disqualifies them 
for, and gives them an almost unconquerable averseness 
to, exercises of reflection, such as contemplation, study, 
attention, &c. Now it is too well known what for- 
midable impediments these throw in the way of their 
initiation in necessary knowledge and art ; and in how 
many instances they forever block up their proficien- 
cy; wherefore they remain vulgar, and contract inso- 
lence and rudeness, consecrating all immorality ! for 
vain are books, teachers, schools, and all manner of in- 



157 

stitutes, without willing application of mind. Several 
effects of these, might be traced to the moral sense, in 
the way of some habitudes of the passions and trains 
of thought. But what seems the most unaccountably 
ridiculous in this kind of treatment of children, is 
teaching them to articulate incorrectly, while it were 
easier in them to learn proper words, and give them 
the proper sound. This is giving them a different lan- 
guage ; and may subtly insinuate into their minds a 
persuasion that they are a distinct class, and are to live 
differently from others around them ; at least it helps 
among other odd things, to assemble in their heads 
romantic ideas to precede and confuse their real ones. 
But it unquestionably impedes their articulation. I 
know of no excuse has been made for this : it seems 
to be one of those fashions the world runs headlong into, 
they, know not wherefore. A habit of levity sometimes 
comes from this playing discipline ; since it gives a 
gadding turn to the spirits ; and also the accumulation 
of that sort of power, in the recession, produces after- 
wards restlessness, and this is unsteadiness already. 
How little does the commonalty imagine that by this 
flightiness of the young, the extravagance of the world 
is to be traced very much to such a sort of treatment 
of children! Some are wearied out by importunity: 
so, from time to time gratify their children in their in- 
stinctive and puerile vagaries; which festers and 
strengthens bad passions. Teasing overpowers them. 
This is weakness of mind, from want of cultivation. 
Thus the world is corrupted, in one generation after 
another, for want of cultivation of mind ! Of so great 
consequence is this cultivation ! Indeed every degree 
of order and civilization, grow? out of this. It is that 
whereby we come at a knowledge of the laws of na- 
ture. It is to this we owe the perfect distinction of 
what is right and wrong, in the delusive multiformity 
ot our prospect*. Would parents go about to collect 
14 



158 

a philosophic view of this subject, they would so \m 
induce improvement upon this institute. For herebjr 
they would abide in such treatment as would use the 
faculties of their offspring in a manner propitious to 
their advancement towards the end propos'd by nature, 
consummation of enjoyment. Now, this consumma- 
tion implies sublimation or refinement, as well as en- 
largement. This view requires cultivation of mind. 
More of this hereafter. 

III. There is another class who repress that which 
would be a proper degree of ardour, and use of a due 
degree of freedom : who injure their children by too 
much constraint. This is a common case mth mas- 
ters, who exercise no feeling towards foreign poor in 
their gard. They rear them to ignorance and vulgar- 
ity, besides giving them a slavish spirit. It would re- 
flect honour on human nature if governments would 
institute permanent provision for the employment, 
support, and instruction of ail poor youth. 

IV. By parents' neglecting to give their offspring an 
attachment to the means and processes of learning. 
For, by failing to associate pleasing ideas with the ne- 
cessary preludes of knowledge and art, we preclude 
all inclination to sound voluntary thinking, and can 
never superinduce a propensity to study and contem- 
plation. 

V. By neglecting to give judicious precepts and 
examples to youth, and pursue them in such ways as 
to fix good principles. Many impart no precepts at 
all, but proceed as if they thought the children had 
mature reason and judgement ; — when they have done 
any thing irregular, asking them the question, why? 
wherefore? referring to a proficiency equal to their 
own experience: which is a ridiculous specimen of 
that degree of assurance with which people set out 
upon the executing of some business. It is important 
to be acquainted with the subject of what one under- 



159 

takes to be master of. Again ; having given good ad- 
vice and wholesome precepts, some continue to exhi- 
bit adverse examples: examples, which, from habit, 
they find their enjoyment adjuvated by acting, wit - 
out considering their influential character at all. Thus 
we see a universal disorder, from want of cultivation 
of mind, carrying on its baleful efficiency into all parts 
of the business of civil life. They are apt not to be 
considerate of power and manner, nor to be scrupu- 
lous of displaying any thing in their practice, repug- 
nant to what they have, in words, enjoin'd. This is a 
subject that ought to be critically studied. The im- 
portance of this, is conspicuous in reflection. Under 
this head, is concinnous to mention a sort of example 
people shew in punishing or rewarding children. The 
inconsiderate is apt to imagine the impression of what 
is designed, has the knack - to supersede all other im- 
pressions. That which is most effective is seen in their 
punishments. Many of us, besides humouring our 
children inordinately, yet after having borne and for 
borne, with a degree of pusillanimity, their impudence, 
till it is grown into a very exasperating effrontery, fly 
-at them in a fit of anger like wild beasts of prey. 
This is abusively trifling with the rational intelligence; 
for the precedent of resentment is more- efficient in 
the mind of the tyro than any thing else that is done. 
And indeed this is the essential mould of the onset; 
it being a retaliatory scheme to inflict pain, which if 
it be done, we feel gratified, and our plea is the good 
of the child: but the pleading is not sound. Much 
anger must not appear, in punishment, on account of 
the contagious fascination of example. It defeats the 
purpose of correction. Oftentimes the whole bluster 
is to no other execution at all than to exemplify re- 
sentinent to the tender minds of the curious tyros; 
an<* rhe greater the degree of anger, generally the less 
affiic ive in its des^s ned effect ; and the reason is, the 



160 

exhaustion of the spirit in voluntary thinking, cuts it 
short in the sequel. Rewards also are often unsea- 
sonably applied ; and thereby fail of their desired ef- 
fect. Some remember a child's desert at a time when 
they should think of punishing him ; and give him a 
reward in such a conjuncture that it seems to be for 
his doggedness. 

VI. By denying them access to schools, or else nn- 
peding and perplexing that access in a manner that 
frustrates it. The infant must needs be manag'd at 
home. But the bulk of mankind is under necessity 
of having their attention taken up by some objects 
that pertain to subsistence, while their children in 
their adolescent state needing the hand of a tutor when 
theirselves cannot educate them, is requisite a hired 
teacher take charge of them. They need the constant 
oversight of some one, in all parts of their use of the 
day, till such time as good principles and habits shall 
have been fixed in a fair way of progressing towards per- 
fection Not only while the child remains within the 
pales of his seminary; but on his way, and in all in- 
terims, a controuling eye need pursue him with cir- 
cumspection and concern. If it be reasonable that he 
idle away time in sauntering about his road to school; 
if it be reasonable that he enter the orchards and gar- 
dens of his neighbors, devour or carry oft' their fruit; 
if it be reasonable that he enter into bickerings with 
his pheers, or spend his time in prosecuting plots of 
imposture or mischief; he should be indulged with 
freedom to do these things: if not, either his teacher 
or his parent should decidedly hold jurisdiction over 
him in these intervals. Here originates great trouble. 
The parent will neither give up this jurisdiction, nor 
exercise it. The tutor, on the other hand, will not 
assume it to himself, on account of the variance about 
it. This dispute is carried farther. It is denied, in 
effect, that the tutor, with propriety has cognizance of 



be child's moral conduct. Here is a childish falling 
ut, and quarrelling; among men, about trifles. If it 
be reasonable that the child be kept within the bounds 
of decorum, and also in the way of accustoming that 
which is good, in its remote bearings; then it is requi- 
site that either the proprietor, or deputed instructor of 
the child, have cognizance of his course ; that he hold 
and exercise authoritative jurisdiction of it. If it be 
more reasonable that the tutor have this controul of 
the scholar, m his appropriating all parts of the day, 
than that the parent or guardian should have it ; let it 
be so ; or if it be most reasonable that the latter should 
retain the jurisdiction so far as the child's absence 
from school, let him exercise it: but it ought to be de- 
cidedly awarded to one or the other, and exercis'd too, 
by whomsoever it does belong to ; since " a child left to 
himself brings his parents to shame." 

Mankind from want of kuowledge, and due culti- 
tivation of natural faculties, are addicted to consider 
the modalities of a subject rather than the essence. 
Hence they contract aversion to teachers on account 
of their way of living, habits of regimen, their gait, 
their dialect, their air, and a thousand incidental cir- 
cumstances ; and under impression of this, retract 
their children from schools ; or temporizing to their 
puerile caprice, indulge them alternately with a few 
days' absence, then a few days' attendance ; wherein 
they can get no proficiency ; what ideas and exercise 
intervene to the trains of their studies, utterly over- 
powering the associations and habits that were begun ; 
and they are brought to more labour to recollect their 
little gatherings of learning, than was required at 
first to get them. For whatever sort of necessary 
knowledge or art they are put about requisitely ac- 
quiring the ideas of, arithmetic, reading, geography or 
writing, things indispensable in common life, these other 
ideas suffer'd to supervene in the interims (of their re- 
*14 



162 

eession,) being what are associated with the prevailing 
ordinary pleasures of their stations, come in a more ex- 
citing form, and inevitably supersede if not obliterate 
the other. Any business must be pursued long enough 
to form a circle of action not only, but to also col- 
lect greater pleasure than another ready resort, before 
it can get the invariable bias of choice. Therefore 
this is the key ; this is the secret with judicious 
teachers, of grounding a good education ; to collect 
more pleasure in the view of their process, than what 
prevails in averse views. And this, in the beginning, 
must be done by parents. A tutor can never do it 
without the concurrence of the parent, in some shape 
or other, for the following reasons, viz : 

1. The child draws the first pleasures of its exis- 
tence from his parent ; and these first pleasures are of 
a nature to prevail in the substantiating of a tempera- 
ment of passions, because, first, they are continued 
with constancy for a considerable time, and are con- 
nected with the means of his existence; and secondly 
because the system being more delicate than ever after, 
takes stronger impressions. 

2. The pupil being at home in the company of his 
parents and nurses the greatest part of the day, is 
more naturally biassed by their agency than by that of 
a tutor; which, if their works be different, will impel 
him in as different a course, and will be found diffi- 
cult to supersede strong by weak ; to overcome the 
original by the secondary. The teacher needs to be 
respected by the parent, and treated as a brother ; es- 
pecially within the observance of pupils nothing should 
be said either derogatory or diminutive of him : the 
reverse is imminently pernicious. People are too apt, 
in presence of their children, to speak of their in- 
structors as servants and drudges, from that common 
aptitude arising from ignorance and depravity, to 
underrate the business oi instruction. They even with 



163 

open opprobrium represent the occupation as .a low 
fawning capricious subsistence, while theirselves are 
the cause or its being such. They go still farther : 
on the most frivolous pretexts of umbrage, the slight- 
est misgoings of these instructors, they rush headlong 
into virulent phillipicks upon their characters, that re- 
flect contemptuous ideas into all bystanders. Little 
do they think of the prejudicial effects this operates 
in their listening offspring ; poorly do they conceive of 
the magnitude or the mischief; for it crosses the dear- 
est wishes of their own hearts, since it tears away the 
foundation of deference to all supervizing authority. 
Vainly now may they anticipate reverence, obedience, 
and the fruits of filial gratitude. Such is the impor- 
tance of respectful ideas of an instructor, in the mind 
of a pupil : but mon* of this hereafter. 

Yll. By the general extravagance of the multitude ex- 
hibiting depraving examples and consecrating corrupt 
mamzers, this instituteis further more abus'd, and parents 
and children robbed of the blessings naturally affixed 
to an improvement of it. Reciprocal is the felicity of 
this condition, when improved according to the laws of 
nature. Children are most influenced by their parents, 
nurses, relations, companions, and neighbours : the 
examples these shew them, are apt to fix their charac- 
ters. The epidemic corruption of the wide world 
pestilentially steals into their innocuous hearts, and by 
one insinuation or another, biasses them to arrant af- 
fections. All this may be circumscribed, and finally 
countermined, by a circumspection of parents, having 
at first the energy of their minds concentrated upon 
this subject. The improvement to be suggested in 
this part, is for parents to keep their children out of the 
thoroughfare of temptations. This is negative. There 
is a process of positive advances to the weal of « moral 
good ; which consists in studied insinuations] by pre- 



164 

ceptand example, to counteract the influence of extern 
nal excitements. 

VIII. By ingratitude of youth. Children, by un 
grateful perversion of the good things they receive 
from the authors of their being, with their eyes fairly 
open to right and wrong, cherishinga habit of disrt- 
puting others' feelings, harden their necks, to the mu- 
tual deprivation of themselves and parents of the 
purest of earthly happiness : for what is more serene- 
ly charming than the domestic circle can be made ? 
Yet these exclude domestic happiness; and afterwards 
treat with cold aversion and neglect, the source from 
which they emerged with all their supernumerary train 
of gratuitous and undeserved enjoyments. And in 
this they are almost unpardonable : for, the child, hav- 
ing become enlightened in the laws of nature, so as to 
know moral good and evil in the character of his con- 
dition, that is, knowing this institute and the use of it, 
if he fallg away, he ensures to himself a horrific re- 
trospect wherein he is annoyed by those emotions of 
compunctious anguish which are an effect entailed by 
the constitution of nature upon his conscious and con- 
fest infringements ; as has been intimated in elucidat- 
ing the idea of sympathy. I here speak of children 
as acting for themselves, and being under obligations. 
It is the duty of children to be grateful to their pa- 
rents. There is a duty for children todo; and they 
have power to do it: they know how to do it. Here 
we suppose their judgment to be mature; that they 
fei^ow their obligations, and the means to perform them. 
Both in youth and manhood they are indebted to those 
who gave them life and sustenance, so far as to cherish 
an affectionate regard for them ; as well as purposes 
of restitution whereever there is scope and support 
hereforf. 

* He that's ungrateful (says the poet) has no fault 
but one ; all other crimes may pass for virtues in him.' 



465 

How can human beings be unfeeling towards the au- 
thors of their being, sustenance and nurture? They can 
be so, as all human nature is susceptible of evil. Every 
event has a natural cause ; an ascendancy, in moving 
or moved matter. The essence of ingratitude consists 
in a want of cultivation of natural affection: for what 
is more natural than for us to love our benefactors ? 
and what greater benefactors can there be than those 
who gave us life and initiation? It seems like repressing 
the readiest emotions of sympathy. Were here place, 
I would point out some particular causes that lead up 
to this abuse But it is here supposed the tyro has 
receiv'd good precepts, good examples, from his parent; 
that he is sensible of these, and sensible of a series of 
good endeavours therein, to conform him to virtue ; that 
he has perceiv'd the solicitude of those who brought 
him upon the stage, concerning his moral character. 
Here is great burden on his own conscience; — for af- 
ter ha\ifjg receiv'd the knowledge of the truth, then 
falling away by resistance or avoidance into the path 
of immorality, is, in a sense, unnatural. This demon- 
strates the ingratitude of the agent. How can the off- 
spring be void of natural affection to the stock? Af- 
fection that is efficient to prompt to works of justice ? 
Sympathy lessens in proportion to the unlikeness of its 
object in age, appearance, moving, and peculiarities of 
habits. It is very useful thereforein many cases, for the 
parent or instructor to exhibit the appearance of juve- 
nile habits. This may awaken the strongest impulses 
of sympathy. After all has been said of ingratitude, 
children are not so heinously ungrateful as is generally 
imagined. Free rational agents, they frame schemes 
and views for themselves. They plot : peradventure, 
too early, Care should be taken that there be not ad- 
mitted them large and splendid vie ws of life; nor too 
rapid openings of science, which may carry their feel- 
ings above the comparatively little concernments of 



166 

their real condition. They view their parents as all 
other bystanders, equal agents capable of benefiting 
and of annoying their darling purposes. They cannot 
pointedly persecute, or feel indifferent to, those pa- 
rents in the character of authors and preservers of 
their being. They are not ungrateful to them as au- 
thors and preservers. They have not in their minds 
the contemplation of those characters. Ingratitude 
in them, is neglect and avoidance of reflection on what 
they ought to be reflecting on. It is the character of 
that want of thoughtfulness and sedate observance of 
natural impressions, according to the design of nature : 
a want of thought ; a neglect of pursuing and cher- 
ishing certain sentiments. The whole may be general- 
ly traced to natural causes in the managery of their 
nurture : a pretermission of which, is calculating upon 
extraorninary force of sympathy and energy of vir- 
tue in youth. But when they get into years of man- 
hood,there is little excuse for them if they will not 
cultivate a tender advertence to the weal of their pa- 
rents ; for justice cannot grow on such soil. They 
can scarcely be disinterestedly just or honorable. A 
parent is cruelly contristatcd by the perception of the 
ingratitude of a child. The child is not sensible of 
this i nor is the parent sensible of this insensibility and 
ignorance of the child ; but feels a persuasion that he 
nets with absolute malignity. Perhaps this is one of the 
greatest evils under the sun. It is the most grievous 
calamity that betides human society. Reflect on this, 
children of all ages ! Consider this coincidence of 
circumstances, flowing out of the nature of things ! 
the source of the keenest, most inconsolable grief in- 
cident to humanity ! Consider the pains, the watch- 
ings,your parents have experienced for you in your 
helpless state ; the tender cares, the anxious solicitude 
they felt for your weal ; the griefs for your affile tions 
and dangers ; their complacent hopes, their enchanting 



anticipations of your virtue, peace, and honorable en- 
joyment of t\\Q stage of social life ; and how great a 
part of their own happiness hung upon the considera- 
tion of your future consequence and well being! Let 
it not have been altogether visionary Poison not 
the haunts of serene pleasure by blasting such reason- 
able hopes, and wildly frustrating those pleasing 
schemes that grow out of natural affection. Let not 
the placid emotions nature has interlocked with the 
tender scene of the domestic relations, be harrowed up 
by the abrupt intervention of so contristating a disap- 
pointment : It casts a gloom over the whole lace of the 
social stage ! Look at the brute creation. Look at the 
stork of the wilderness ! Look at the untutored savage ! 
Is not this an institution of nature ? That power 
that directs the organiz'd race to seek the continuation 
of their existence, institutes gratitude. It annexes 
the obligation of gratitude to the relation of offspring 
to stock. 

Secondly. Books are another kind of institutes, I 
shall next notice. The world is overloaded with books 
of all descriptions ,- of which, tew deserve the name 
of institutes by their serviceableness towards their 
proper end. Some are calculated to vitiate rather 
than improve education: to promote bad rather than 
good education. Romances, tales, polemic tracts of 
the ecclesiastics, rituals, and works treating of spiri- 
tual beings, are those which have the most flimsy pre- 
tences to the promotion of human improvement. The 
books which most concinnously wear the title of in- 
stitutes, are systematical treatises of sciences and 
arts, containing maxims and rules to teach knowledge 
and method : such as systems of arithmetic, grammar, 
natural philosophy, morality medicine, mechanics, &c. 
The greatest defect noticeable in these things, in ge- 
neral, is a want of natural order. Perhaps a refor- 
mation of language would go far towards remedying 



168 

this; since a diversity in the use of words, making 
the same word stand for various ideas, and again, on 
the other hand, the same idea to be denoted by various 
words, introduces great confusion, and seeming devia- 
tion from fixed principles in the constitution of riatuie 
whereon aspire the structures of human science. If 
men should be conducted by that gentle gradation 
wherewith the constituent ideas that make up any sec- 
tion of knowledge, are progressively engendered, un- 
der a due proportional, unbiassed appropriation of 
their natural powers (and after waids arranged accord- 
ing to their use ar.d bearings, into their specific de- 
partments of learning) they would be trained to the 
most apt and successful way of communicating. Men 
are not accomplished to teach, till they understand 
the very rise of their subject, and the trains whereby 
their own apprehension compassed an acquaintance 
with its bearings Thus, if an institute of arithmetic 
should begin with the formation of the idea of number ;- 
of grammar, with the origin of sound and its designa- 
tion by visible objects, thence proceeding to the se- 
veral ways of articulating, and the parts exerted, to 
produce each sound ;-of astronomy, with the principles 
of the rules for deducing true quantities from assumed 
ones by way of a relation that objects magnified by 
glasses, have, to measured ones seen by the naked eye ;- 
now much more agreeable to the gradation eminent 
throughout the works of nature ! This, while it spreads 
the foundation of a particular science, beyond the ex- 
act limits of that science itself, gives an abstract view 
of the more general division it belongs to, and shews 
its connections; a repetition of which sort of views, 
increases the capacity of the understanding. Learners 
from institutes, must begin with the most simple. The 
most simple ideas, of a system, are the most abstracted 
ones; — as being, substance, manner, succession, white- 
ness, hardness, sound, motion, &c. The most natural 



109 

Jivisiou of human science and art, [ suppose to be that 
which under the term philosophy, disposes all the ob- 
jects of our speculation into three branches, which are 
called natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and ra- 
tional philosophy. Natural philosophy teaches the 
knowledge of substances, their relations, properties, 
powers, affections, and operations, as number, figure, 
motion, &c. Moral philosophy is the science of find- 
ing out such rules and measures to the voluntary ac- 
tions of men as tend to happiness in general, and to 
the accomplishment of their desired ends in particu- 
lar. Rational philosophy embraces the nature, use, 
and proper arrangement and modification, of those 
signs employed by intelligent creatures in getting the 
knowledge of things ; forming opinions which may be 
influential on their moral conduct; and in communi- 
cating their thoughts one to another. Now the condi- 
tion of men being such as to necessarily intervolve 
these several sorts of knowledge, it is indispensable 
that some institutes within the scope of any of these 
branches, participate of the principles essential to 
those belonging to another : as an institute of morality 
partakes of physic and metaphysic. And, again, one 
particular science, of those of another: as an institute 
of geography interferes with astronomy. Conse- 
qently sciences are classed according to their drift, 
as it comports with the general design of those depart- 
ments whereunder they are ranked. But above all, 
natural philosophy contains the primordial ingredients 
of all other science and art whatever. It is imme- 
diately connected with the nature of man, a know- 
ledge of the active and passive power of whose whole 
system, is indispensable to the finishing of this. So, 
a system of ethics, which being built on, requisitely 
includes, the several discriminative ideas of the con- 
stitution of human nature, falls under that distinct 
branch called moral philosophy; because the uniform 
15 



170 

receptory aim, both in the case of the particular and 
the general instance of its appropriation, is the direc- 
tion of mankind's voluntary actions by certain modi- 
fications towards the universal goal of all intelligent 
purposes ; the subsidiary views of men, or the prime 
design of nature to preserve and happify the members 
of her family. 

Now these heads are conspicuously distinct; and I 
know of no other predicamental distribution of these 
sorts of objects, that is perfectly so. * For there is 
nothing that can employ our thoughts, or any way im- 
press our mind, but 1st. Things as they are, metaphy- 
sically, in themselves; substances whether material 
or immaterial, with their properties, affections, and re- 
lations ; 2d. That which dependant rational intelli- 
gences, like ourselves, may or ought to do, in order to 
obtain their ends; or 3d. The signs which they make 
use of, in both the one and the other of these, which 
are ideas, which are the signs of things;* and articu- 
late sounds, figures, motions, and colours, which are 
the desired signs of ideas. Natural philosophy 
comprehends three general divisions, which may be 
called metaphysic, physic, and history, Metaphysic 
is the science of beings, abstract from the considera- 
tion of their efficient operation ; realities as they stand 
in relation to our apprehensive capacity, and inactive. 
Physic is the science of causes and effects (instituted 
in "the constitution of matter;) and proportional rela- 
tion. History is that part of natural philosophy which 
embraces so much of the knowledge of things as that 
of their exterior modalities exclusive of the conside- 
ration of their relative powers and operations;— as 
their figure, dimensions, colour, and relative situations ; 
and also the distinguishing points of fleeting existence, 
considered barely as evanescent appearances in rela- 

• Locke. 



17 1 

tion to time and place ; as the actions of living beings, 
&c. 

Metapfvysic has been divided into six parts, called 
1, ontology, or the doctrine of the general essence of 
all beings and their essential attributes considered 
a priori : 2, cosmology, the knowledge of the essence of 
the world' and all it contains; S, anthropology, the 
knowledge of man, in his parts and properties, consi- 
dered as a distinct species of being; 4, mycology or 
knowledge of soul in general, and of the soul of mai 
in particular; 5, pneumatology the theory of separate 
spirits, as angels, &c ; and 6, theodicy, or the doctrine 
of the existence of God, his attributes and perfections. 
Physic is divided into chymistry, physiology, optics, 
medicine, music; arithmetic, geometry, mechanics; 
meteorology and astronomy. History may be divid- 
ed into geography; natural history ; biography; gene- 
ral history or history of nations, communities, king- 
doms, states, empires, ages; and adventitious history, 
as history of wars, expeditions, &c, and this is mixed 
of the two former, implicating the actions of indivi- 
duals and of collections. These three last are some- 
times callM moral history, in contradistinction to geo* 
graphy and natural history. 

Moral philosophy is divided into ethics and handi- 
craft. Ethics is either sublime or formulary. The 
former teaches the true metaphysical aspects of sym- 
pathy, obligation, passion, will, and voluntary move- 
ments, and their causes and effects founded in the 
constitution of nature: the latter, ceremonies and me- 
thods, that, applicatory of the science to the purpose 
of human happiness, constitute the duties of life. Han- 
dicraft comprises all the rules and designs of mechanic 
arts, to exercise and employ the organs and powers 
of men for the procurement of a livelihood, or promot- 
ing the improvement of parts. 



17S 

Rational philosophy comprehends logic, grammar, 
and rhetoric. I do not conceive why music, which 
consisting altogether of ideas of sounds and their re- 
lations, all which sounds and relations are partly by 
nature and partly by general consent, made to stand 
for certain thoughts and feelings, the whole import of 
'he science being involved in this same significance, 
ran mean little else than doctrine of signs, does not 
Reserve to be ranked in this department of lore. 

Chymistry discloses and distinguishes the elements 
of all material beings; the changes they are capable 
of; their relative properties and efficiency ; and shews 
how one body may be changed into another species, by 
cassating some of its secondary qualities and supplying 
others. 

Physiology investigates the constitutions of living 
organized beings, and explains their powers; and com- 
prehends anatomy a description of the structure and 
parts of animal bodies ; the skill of the several mea- 
sures and principles whereby they perforin their mo- 
tions; and that metaphysic which treats of the opera- 
tions of cogitative substances. Now, if ideas be mo- 
tions of sensitive matter, and if the only thinking in- 
telligent beings we have any real knowledge of, be 
animals, I see not why what science under the ancient 
-Medicament of metaphysic, had for its province mind, 
and whose scope was to illustrate the operations and 
affections of thinking beings, is not properly included 
in this branch. For all motion of sensitive matter as 
a part of an organiz'd system, (alls of course within, 
the province and scope of physiology. Since meta- 
physic seems to be nothing other, effectually, than what 
constitutes the proper, necessary objects of all and 
any sort qf science, considered abstractedly from all 
peculiar application and operation ; and in a word, the 
science of abstract ideas ; metaphvsic may be a parf 
of every science; or rather it is but a form and cha- 



173 

racier info which every one may be thrown, a sublime 
view of being. Vegetable organization, also, as well 
as animal, comes under the consideration of physio- 
logy- 
Optics is a science that discloses the nature and 

laws of vision, and partakes of meteorology and phy- 
siology, as light and the organ of seeing, are its pri- 
mordial ideas. 

Medicine explains the phenomena of diseases inci- 
dent to the bodies of animals ; and the powers and 
effects of several other bodies on these, in relation t? 
such diseases, and applied as remedies, — this part is 
called materia medica. This science partakes of 
chymistry, natural history, and physiology. 

Music considered as a physical science, is other- 
wise harmonics, the skill of harmony ; shewing the 
relations of sounds, and the laws and measures where- 
by their combinations produce certain effects. 

Arithmetic contemplates merely the nature and 
uses of number; and treats of the characters whereby 
its several variations are designated, and the ways 
for applying its diversification inductively, for the 
discovery of truth. 

Geometry explains the phenomena and proportions of 
figure ; its modes and relations. 

Mechanics shews us the laws of communicated 
motion ; the proportional mobility of bodies ; and the 
measures and degrees whereby force may be conveyM 
and applied from one body to another. This includes 
statics. Meteorology is the science that explains the na- 
ture and causes of the several sorts ot meteors that make 
their appearance about our globe ; which are either ae- 
rial, aqueous, igneous, or mixed : the principal where- 
of are the atmosphere and the several sorts ot air as far 
as electrical fluijj, wind, or current of air, hurricanes, 
whirlwinds, thunder; exhalations, dew, fogs, mists, 
rain, waterspouts^ frost, sleet, hail, snow; light, ignis - 

*15 



174 

fetuus, falling stars, lightning, earthquakes, aurora bo- 
realis ; clouds, rainbows, parhelions, halos. 

Astronomy treats of the motions, magnitudes, dis- 
tances, figures, relative operations and influences of 
the great bodies of the world ; as suns, planets, comets. 

Geography describes the surface of the globe, its 
several natural and artificial divisions, its lakes, ri- 
vers, mountains, states, kingdoms, &c; and is distin- 
guishable into three sorts, as it participates of astro- 
nomy, natural history, and moral history. 

Natural history defines the several fixtures and de- 
pendencies of the earth we inhabit; and is divided 
into zoology, a description of animals; botany a de- 
scription of vegetables ; and mineralogy a descrip- 
tion of stones, fossils, minerals, metals, earths, &c. 

Biography describes the trains of particular per- 
sons' actions, and the incidents immediately connec-* 
ted therewith 

General history describes those of communities of 
men ; tribes, nations, &c. Adventitious history is con- 
fined to the consideration of particular enterprizes or 
courses of events, which are determinate. As wars, 
voyages, journies, embassies, expeditions, plagues, fe- 
vers. 

These varieties of history, although their ingredi- 
ents may seem to be objects of assent rather than of 
knowledge, are dass'd among the sciences because 
these things are supposed to be real, what others have 
actually known making up a great part of the stock. 
In short, moral history no farther belongs to the physi- 
cal department of philosophy than its objects are con- 
sidered matters of speculative truth; which are events 
taken place, and their periods, and either the relative 
points of duration, which mark noticeable occurrences, 
the registry whereof is called chronology; the actions 
of particular persons, called biography; or the trans- 
actions of bodies of men, fortune of nations, &c. most-* 



i75 

ly called general history. As a branch ot rational 
philosophy, it is description; particular use of signs to 
display those objects; which itself being made an ob- 
ject of our speculation, falls under the consideration 
of rhetoric. 

Ethics treats of will, volition and its motives, li- 
berty, obligation ; and explains the active and passive 
powers of man, as they concern the modification of 
his duties. 

Sublime ethics is an abstract consideration of the 
active and passive powers of men, as free intelligent 
agents, and the physical tendency of their voluntary 
actions, from which it deduces their obligation For- 
mulary ethics searches out the right modes of these 
actions as means to attain the greatest good; as vir- 
tuous habits : and to this scope, explains laws, pre- 
cepts, and exercises to good measures. Out of these 
two, are framed the science and art of education. 

Handicraft comprises the secrets of the measures of 
all those arts used for the subsistence and entertain- 
ment of mankind. Of these arts, are two kinds: 
sublime arts and mechanic arts. The sublime arts 
are alchymy, poetry, music, oratory, painting, sculpture, 
architecture, navigation, reasoning. 

The mechanic arte, are hunting, clothing, husbandry, 
surveying, printing, smithery, engraving, building, 
cooking, penmanship, and innumerable others. 

Logic teaches the art of reasoning, and rightly arrang- 
ing ideas and words, so far as concerned in the estab- 
lishment of truth. It comprehends description and ar- 
rangement of the materials of all our knowledge and 
opinion, which are ideas, the signs that to our under- 
standings represent things; likewise several opera- 
tions of the mind ; and is, in institutes, generally di- 
vided into four parts, which are called " simple appre- 
hension, judgment, reason., and method." 

Grammar contemplates the nature of articulate 



176 

language, its progressive formation, its customary 
modes, and Hs propriety. 

Rhetoric" is the science of expression. It has two 
pail'; : r xpression of feeling and expression of thoughts. 
To this end, it considers the definition of words, and 
several modes o£ motion and sound fitted to display 
and excite certain sentiments and emotions. 

Civilized nations are possessed of several valuable 
institutes in natural, moral, and rational philosophy. 
Some of the best whereof, under the first head, are Eu- 
clid's, elements of geometry, Newton's, Locke's, and. 
Daren's works. Under the second, Smith's theory of 
moral sentiments, Seneca's morals, Tully's offices, 
Hutchinson's system of morality, economy of human 
life, the proverbs of Solomon, and the preachings of 
Jesus Christ and the Apostles. And under the last, 
Tooke's diversions of Purley, Perry's and Murray f s 
grammatical works and selections ; Duncan's logic, 
Bailey's and Johnson's dictionaries. 

Now since knowledge of these several sorts, is pro- 
miscuously induced ; is impossible to be otherwise than 
that learners come at knowledge in either of these di- 
verse predicaments with irregular alternations, be- 
cause the scenes of this stage of our existence, are in 
perpetual fluctuation: but there is a train which in- 
structors can maintain by skill and art ; a train of 
means, aud exercises of mind, may be kept up by 
skill and art, that substantiates a sort of uniform scale 
of education. Yet natural philosophy is the founda- 
tion of all other science. The knowledge of things 
physically, must constitute the basis of all digests of 
knowledge and art. All systems necessarily have 
such ideas and combinations of ideas as are essentially 
discriminative of our speculative knowledge of natur- 
al existence, for their fundamental maxims. There- 
fore an initiation in natural philosophy, is an indispen- 
sable prerequisite to the digesting of the materials of 



177 ^ 

any class, order, kind, or sort of knowledge, into in- 
stitutes or scales of doctrine. Consequently although 
institutes of grammar are the first we make use of (of 
this kind) to teach children, yet this is not the first 
knowledge they get : much physical knowledge is pre- 
viously stowed into their little heads. Yet the first 
literary institute required and properly employed about 
education, is that of language. One of the best of this 
sort Englishmen were acquainted with, was drawn up 
by one William Perry, who furnished a clear and easy 
method to initiate and train children in the use of the 
accustomed articulation of his countrymen's language. 
This system has been improved by Lindley Murray. 
The only perfect system would be none short of that 
which should afford a distinct character to e\evj dis- 
tinct sound that is made by application of the organs 
of articulation. Thus, written words would have a 
regular formation, and a natural expression. Nothing 
more indubitably evinces the imbecile and childish 
manner men engendered knowledge and art, than 
their awkward shift of making one character do the 
office of a diverse representation, and another, that of 
one uniform sound. This shews how irregularly and 
slowly they blundered into what improvements they 
got ; and likewise how inveterately tenacious they 
are of inured manners. If men had made regular 
progress in improvement — i. e. in discovery and inven- 
tion, by way of perseverance and forecast, they would 
certainly have torm'd their expressions according to 
the natural powers of things, There is consideration 
of every particular sound produced by the articulating 
organs, as marking the difference of one word from 
another, and what is more rational than to denote this 
sound by a separate character? Darwin, an English 
philosopher, offered a scheme of natural representa- 
tion : also, Kneeland, an American, a similar improve- 
ment: but such is ih^ predominance of custom, and 



178 

such the inveterate fixure in the vulgar mind, of the 
association of the form with the import of so accumu- 
lated a body of literature as is infolded in apalliament 
which is spun out of that irregular stuff; that it is 
supposed to be impracticable to change the alphabet of 
any nation. As soon as the child is able to form syla- 
bles into words, give them their proper sound, and 
can understand some easy words, we put into his 
hands little moral institutes, contrived to insinuate by 
similitude and endearing description of example, the 
spirit of benignant principles. Care should be taken 
how these are written. A prevailing errour is, the ad- 
mitting of too many romantic images, which accus- 
toming the understanding to fantastical ideas, carry 
the affections beyond realities of nature, in this che- 
quered state of mediocrity. The next thing is an in- 
stitute of arithmetic. But very little proficiency can 
be attained in this branch, before the mind of the tyro 
being capable of discerning and comparing the modes 
of articulate language as it is represented by printed 
or written characters, it is proper to initiate him in 
etymology and syntax. After this he should complete 
the circuit of arithmetic. Next, geography should be 
learn'd. Next to this, institutes of logic and rheto- 
ric are appropriate. Note this ; during the progress 
through all other Sciences, ethics should be kept close 
and true to the understanding ; it being that which 
applies its measures to all parts of the employment of 
our time. It is the science of sciences. It devises 
and directs the appropriation of all sciences and arts 
whatever. Morality, (says Mr. Locke,) is the great 
business of mankind. Moral philosophy undoubtedly 
comprehends the first essential concerns of education. 
Gradual institutes of this sort, must be successively 
applied, with scrupuious'reference to the weal of the 
rational intelligence. Of so great importance is this, 
that if the spirit of morality be lost from the channel 



179 

of physical and rational lore, other science usually 
proves a curse instead of a blessing, to the social 
stage It is medicine without skill, which cannot 

* minister health, but destruction : machinery without 
motion, which only encumbers the domestic field, and 
precludes other advantages without superinducing any 
benefit. 

I have noticed a defect in institutes in the want of 
natural order of system, which, by a predicamental 
arrangement of the several ideas that being progres- 
sively traced out by the inquiring mind, go to make up 
the body of a science, derives each from its genuine 
base and primordial; and elucidates the progressive 
steps of the intellect, in gathering its ascendant views 
of nature. I shall now take notice of two other de- 
fects conspicuous in several institutes extant; — 1- A 
want of succinctness ;— 2. A want of uniformity of 
expression. 

1. The excellent advantages coming from succinct 
and comprehensive presentments, are acknowledged 
on all hands. Not only can the maxims be the longer 
retained within the memory; but more can be at once 
comprehended in memory." In all practical systems 
especially, this ought to be studied, as being a thing 
indispensable. Less time is taken up in communica- 
tion, and there is less diversion of attention from the 
subject belonging to the design: so that if gives life 
and force to all conveyances of thoughts. Many of 
our writers of practical tracts on the sciences, to 
whom the schools look as to standards of instruction, 
have been too circuitous and verbose; and interpos- 
ing an amusing display of general knowledge or emi- 
nent genius, neglected the study of this inestimable 
art of representing much in small compass. 

2. Uniformity in the use of words, in the several 
systems made use of either, successively by the same 
persons* or of the same kind in different parts of the 



180 

community, is of great consequence in the regulation 
of habits of thinking and arguing. Men are in the 
habits of using the same word in different places to 
signify different ideas; and also of denoting the same 
idea by various words. Sometimes this is done in one 
individual treatise, and then it is hardly tolerable un- 
less the writer do therein explain the use of his word 
every time he applies it in a sense different from com- 
mon usage or from what he had previously used it in. 
This is the only way men can be excused for using the 
words of their own country's language contrarily to 
common propriety, and the only way their writing can 
be made intelligible at nil. 

Thirdly. Anotr.er kind of institute is a seminary. 
A seminary is constituted of— 1st. A determinate 
space that includes a commodious station for the assem- 
blage of a number of individual persons for the pur- 
pose of initiation in arts and sciences, by methodical 
exercises, and application of books ; 2d, select persons, 
deputed as tutors, to explain the books and supervise 
those exercises; and 3d, certain laws which are of two 
sorts: 1, such as regulate the proceedings within the 
seminary and prescribe life conduct of the attendants : 
2, such as stipulate the appointment and sustenance 
of the instructors and the location and furnishing of 
the school, instituted either by bodies politic or vica- 
rious boards qualified for such institution. There are 
three sorts of seminaries. First, universities and in- 
corporate schools ; secondly, common public schools 
for the first principles of language, and accomplish- 
ments for ordinary life; thirdly, private schools kept 
by jobbers in the occupation. Seminaries of the first 
class, are either college* designed for teaching the 
whole circle of human science ; or what are called 
academies used to prepare students for the former. 
There are deficiencies in the constitutions and tfse of 
these institutes. 



181 

First; in those of universities may be observed con- 
siderable failings, as 

1st. in the measures of the provision for supporting 
the establishments; which make the terms of indivi- 
duals' instruction expensive; so that none but the fa- 
vorites of fortune can have the benefit. of college-edu- 
cation. This gives an aristocratical appearance to 
such institutions. "Full many a gem of purest ray 
serene, the dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear," 
says the poet Gray ; and there is little doubt that seve- 
ral bright and philanthropic genios are lost to the 
world, in obscurity, D y penury. Many intelligences 
with excellent natural qualities and great capacities, 
are precluded from the pleasure of such communica- 
tive operations as would, haply, have enlightened and 
ameliorated societies of mankind, and adorn 'd and 
charm'd the stage of civil life. Little does the com- 
monalty imagine how this monopoly of the medium 
to general improvement in science by the wealthy, 
favors that spirit of aristocracy which so abusivelv 
prevails in governments. Men thinking that none 
can be possessed of the secrets of the sciences and 
arts but those who command great pecuniary resources, 
look for standards among the pageant inheritors of this 
world's pelf ; and, from looking for standards, they 
come to look to the same quarter for rulers. This is a 
consequence that is natural, and very obviously sus- 
ceptive to a course of reasoning from such principles, 
however fallacious-' Millions of property lie dormant 
in the clutches of misers; and worse than dormant in 
the hands of the harlequins of pageantry, and the 
panders of destroying luxury, which, being appropri- 
ated to the support of seminaries, would yield a com- 
mon benefit to republican communities, and advance 
the cause of philanthropy by making that to be the 
free and equal advantage of all the natural pre-emi- 
nences in the constitution of humanity, whether found 

10 



182 

among the poor or rich, instead of being monopolized 
by the favourites of fortune, which otherwise w?s the 
immunity of the latter. A trifling taxation would, 
methinks,in addition to the funds already engendered, 
with what of that kind would supervene, be sufficient 
to render all manner of seminaries free. The univer- 
sal freedom of seminaries is a desideratum which 
would redound to the honor of human nature, in the 
melioration of civil society; and i believe it is a thing 
essential to the only medium wherein we are to rise 
to a spirit of universal peace, whereby the true design 
and principles of Jesus Christ's doctrine shall prevail 
over all corrupt systems, to the introduction of that 
halcyon period wherein all mankind shall live like 
brethren, and be linked together in the bonds of cha- 
rity from one end of the world to the other. 

2dly, In the laws and regulations which modify the 
operations of the school, the secret of keeping alive 
the spirit of moral principles is not critically improv- 
ed, by a skilful adherence to all laudable mechanical 
measures and recourses that tend to impress the im- 
portance of, and habituate moral virtue. Too much 
libertinism is yet to be deprecated as being suflered to 
prevail among the members of our seminaries. Mo- 
ral exercises should be attended daily, and that with- 
out their being marred by any taint of superstition. 
Again: in the timing and arrangement of studies 
which scholars are employed about in these semina- 
ries, there is fault which has operated much against the 
interest of philanthropy in the fit habitation of hu- 
man intelligences. It is rational to conclude that a 
man's occupation which is to characterize his future, 
condition or station in life, as matter of subsistence or 
eminence, ought to be decidedly pitched upon before 
he goes to college; and that the choice of the studies 
he goes there to spend his time about, should follow 
that choice: that t ! ioge studies in which the vigour of 



183 

a man's thoughts is to be elicited, in the prime of the 
strength of his parts, should concern those depart- 
ments of human science and art, of which he is to 
make practical application in his future part on the 
stage of active life, and other speculations which are 
not immediately connected with such, should only be 
taken up by the bye, as improvement of leisure, or in 
fact, as matter of entertainment or diversion, which 
may be done at any intervals after he has gone out of 
college. For example; if a man be designed for a 
mere metaphysician, a speculatory philosopher (whose 
labors of mind may yet be very extensively service- 
able to humankind by analysing the system of natural 
being, to the exposing of the true principles of social 
purposes;) his attention should be more particularly 
drawn to the compass of letterd philosophy extant in 
that channel of human speculation; but separate sys- 
tems handled only as subsidiary things to those views 
which may pertain to that capacity or office of his 
destined existence on the stage of life* Thus, if ano- 
ther design himself for the profession of a practical 
physician, his main business is with medical, chymical, 
meteorological bocks, and books in natural history, to 
become intimately acquainted with whatever lights 
have been elicited in the tracks of literature, upon the 
intricate concerns of that science which discovers 
diseases and their cures; and, to this end, with the 
several properties of the human body, as well as of 
other bodies, relative to this. 

This is the subject which he should dwell on most 
intently, and make his chief theme of contemplation ; 
and other systems which cannot subserve this scope, 
should not be pursued as matters of indispensable 
accomplishments to the man, any more than of any 
other private citizen without profession; all which 
common accomplishments he is supposed to be pos- 
sess d of anterior to, and independently of, his resort 



184 

to a public seminary; or which at least he can acquire 
at any interval of leisure so far as they depend on li- 
terature. Whereas on the contrary, we find certain 
set compasses of systems are used to be allotted as the 
stints of collegians, to which boundaries having ad- 
vanced by an irksome round ot constrained attention 
and repetition, they are considered worthy of what 
are called degrees, and are dubbed doctors of laws, 
masters of arts, &c. as if it were an ordinary thing for 
any one human creature to be capable of being master 
of all arts, or even of the whole of those which are 
commonly call'd liberal arts : Whereas the same per- 
son can scarcely be a finished adept in more than one, 
in this fleeting life! All these superfluous accom- 
plishments in systems beside the main pursuit of his 
active life, are but the transient glitter of the butter- 
fly's attire, that are to set him off in the short season 
of his college-career, for which he is never after dis- 
tinguished in busy life; so that it is but stuffing his 
head with arts which he means to forget, or is at least 
necessary for him to forget if he be ever useful in any- 
single department. It is making serious matter of ac- 
quiring such things as he is never to make use of; but, 
after the flitting shine of college parades, to be aban- 
doned to the chaos of oblivion. Diversions of some 
sort, are necessary. The mind requires relaxation as 
Avell as the body. Diverse views rest and recruit the 
intellectual eye, as well as the animal organs of vision. 
But to give up whole days, whole weeks, nay whole 
months, to the intent pursuit of themes which are nev- 
er to concern or interest (immediately) the essential 
business of life, pertaining to a man's station on the 
stage of society, is absolute perversion of power and 
privilege. For, what is more idle than to lavish so 
much time, to spend week after week of that portion 
of a man's life which he sets out to appropriate to the 
purpose of acquiring some valuable habilitation in 



185 

knowledge, aptness, or art, which may distinguish him 
with the privilege of some useful ascendancy in active 
life, to the setting himself out by a temporary distinc- 
tion in those attainments which he is never after to 
make any practical use of? If all our scholars should 
£0 seriously to college, deliberately intent on some 
worthy pursuit, and when they got there should con- 
fine their attention to those departments of specula- 
tion which they went there to distinguish themselves 
in, and intended to put in practice in future life, so far 
as to make them their serious business from day today, 
whereon the energy of their maturest thoughts was to 
be exerted, whereby every diverse view might be ba- 
lanced in its proper point of subsidiary use ; I am apt 
to imagine we should have more able and better accom- 
plished statesmen, more skilful physicians, chymists, 
moralists, meteorologists, and in fact greater adepts in 
every liberal art, than we have. If seven years be 
reckoned hardly enough time to perfect a man in one 
of the mechanic arts, I see not why it should not be 
thought little enough to make him perfect master of 
one of the liberal arts and sciences, of so sublime a 
nature and extensive concern as that of medicine. 
Again: too much stress is laid on the study of the 
dead languages : which languages, in fact, it is impos- 
sible to attain arcorrect pronunciation of; and in the 
next place are no longer of any further use than to 
read and translate the most useful books written in 
those languages ; the latter of which being already- 
done, and the power of doing the former being to be 
acquired at the leisure which every prudent freeman's 
life affords, there is no need of spending so much 
time over them as there is spent in our colleges and 
academies. For I cannot conceive any other use to 
the learning of dead language than the gathering of 
what those extinct nations who us'd that language, dis- 
cover'd in arts and sciences, beyond and above what 

*16 



186 



the moderns have discover'd : which being now no 
very enormous task, and the thinking part of the world 
not having been wholly idle for seven or eight hun- 
dred years past, and iistless of such a research, the 
most of that kind of literal arcana is m»de pretty con- 
spicuous to all polished civilized nations. 

The same observations are in some proportion appli- 
cable to academies as to other universities; with tins 
difference, that much about the whole time of the pu- 
pils in those schools, is taken up in speculation about 
language that never is to be used ; and is thought 
essential to their "fitting for college" to be thoroughly 
versed in the grammars and idioms of those languages 
"which have been out of use for ages; which now can 
be put to no other serious purpose than the ascertain- 
ing of the ideas the ancient speakers of those languages 
had, which we have not. It seems as if there were 
something more important to engage the thoughts of 
young persons than the peculiar forms of language which 
nations now dead, spoke a thousand years ago. Some 
knowledge of those languages indeed is very conve- 
nient by the laying open of the routs of those foreign 
words which have been derived therefrom into ours, 
and thro' the successive vicissitudes of men's custons 
and habits, have received a variety of modification 
and meaning ; to subserve a diversity and elegancy of 
style, as well as to amuse. But a critical knowledge 
of their grammer rules, has no active application but 
the translating of them into living language : and I 
think that for a general maxim, we may admit that 
it is even eligible for a man to think for himself, rather 
than be at the pains to dig up the thoughts of those who 
are dead, out of the rubbish, and ruins of ages, where 
mankind of every nation has progressively fluctuated 
from one use of words to another, and perhaps every lan- 
guage on earth ever did, and is ever likely to, undergo 
almost a total revolution in 300 years ; not iu the general 



187 

rdioms and specific mofles of framing propositions, but 
in the forms and powers of its individual elements 
whereof those propositions are made up. I am in a 
fairer way to get knowledge and art by applying my 
faculties of thinking to the meditation of things, than 
by moiling in translation to grub the thoughts of others 
out of a foreign language. Thoughts are not at so 
formidable a par : they may be commanded at a cheaper 
rate. It may be said that the Latin and Greek langua- 
ges are exquisitely musical, and charm by their harmo- 
nious structure and the peculiarly expressive associa- 
tions they bring into view. I grant they are particularly 
pleasing and entertaining, and they amuse by their in- 
genious frame, such as speculate in them : but, for com- 
binations of sound, 1 am apt to think one can find full 
as much real musick in Handel's and Madan's harmony 
as in the Latin and Greek languages. Howbeit, I can- 
not conceive how the philological constructing of those 
dead languages can materially advance the knowledge 
of metaphysical truth, any otherwise than, as mere ob- 
jects, the words they consist of, and their modes, may 
afford such knowledge. The like common neglect of 
morality prevails, as in other schools. I say neglect/ 
as in effect it is a privation of periect principles, by 
way of erroneous measures with the ostensible design 
of supporting and advancing good morals ; which fail 
of doing it by reason of the interference of superstition, 
hypocrisy, inconstancy, world liness, vanity, or some 
other impediments, and the reverse character is inter- 
posed in its stead. To instil good moral principles 
into youth, and to accomplish them with good charac- 
ters, is a secret which requires aptness and skill to put 
into effectual application There is a settled course 
of means instituted in the very constitution of nature, 
leading to this important result. 

Secondly. In the next place, our common public. 
schools claim our notice; wherein may be observed 



188 

many defects that make them imperfectly contributory 
to their contemplated end: as 1st. In the very laws 
which institute and prescribe their support. In those 
polished portions of civil society, which have attained 
to the projection of this advanced utility, those laws 
enjoining upon towns the maintainance of schools du- 
ring given parts of the year, yet fall short of enforcing 
the appropriation of a certain amount of taxes to that 
purpose ; which indeed were essential to the only ef- 
fectual means of securing profitable schools; and 
were sufficient of itself without prescribing time, 
since on the one hand it stands with the interest of 
societies to obtain for this as great a part of a year's 
teaching as they can get (if it be confined to this sort 
of appropriation,) and on the other, affords encourage- 
ment enough to worthy characters in the profession, 
i. e. skilful, stable, studious, well disposed instructors 
to give up their time and attention to this critical bu- 
siness, wnen they can have answerable wages for a 
considerable number of months together. Whereas 
now being enjoined on pain of forfeiture to keep semina- 
ries open for and during certain number of months, 
and being left to their voice how much money they 
shall appropriate and set apart to pay the expense of 
that, their schools must of course follow this pattern 
left for them to be cut out of, and of necessity are liable 
to be very short or very cheap, either one or the other 
of which whether is more disgraceful or frustratory to 
the cause of education, may be questioned. For if 
societies and parts of towns have but little money al- 
lotted them to defray the incidental expenses of keep- 
ing their schools, they are yet prone to crave as many 
months' teaching as they can get for it, that their pupils 
may make some effectual progress in learning, and 
from this, run into parsimonious calculations about this 
delicate business of perpetual consequence to the hu- 
man race, and exhibit this quality in a place where it is 



189 

most odious, nothing being more disgusting to cultiva- 
ted minds (and such are requisite to educate youth 
correctly) than niggardliness; which in effect, in this 
plight, sets off school-societies with the most despara- 
ging figure : Or else the result of their speculations, is 
a cheap teacher, of course a poor one, or one who being 
reduced to the alternative by misfortune, being gulled 
by these speculators in his destitution, never has the 
excitements of friendship, home, reward, or gratitude, 
to a full discharge of his duties. On the other hand, 
being constrained to afford generous pay, it can last but 
a short time ; and, supporting a school but two or three 
months in a year [and why are not those scattered 
children who inhabit districts which afford a smaller 
liumber of pupils than others, and certainly they stand 
in need of as much tutoring to initiate and discipline 
them, worthy of as great a privilege in the access to 
schools, as those who happen to be born in more popu- 
lous Districts? and by what system of economy can 
an instructor afford to spend his time over twenty pu- 
pils cheaper than he can over fifty ?] the pupils make 3 
in general, but small advancement, and directly forget 
what acquests they had compassed, before the year 
comes about, which the cares and pleasures where- 
with they are beset, suffer not to be resuscitated in 
their minds: and the consequence of the whole is, 
that in respect to literary accomplishments, they re- 
main stationary. But perhaps we ought not to com- 
plain of the best things we have got : — it is but a small 
part of the civilized world, which has yet adventur- 
ed to support free schools by equal taxation. But fc 
small part of this republic has become so far the sub- 
ject of liberal sentiments as to be induced to adopt this 
philanthropic measure, whereby education being pursu- 
ed purely as an expedient belonging to the public in- 
terest, is made as freel} accessible to the poor as to the 
rich members of the community: which in fact is as 



190 

consequential to the general weal ; for a poor man is ca* 
pable of doing asm uch evil, and possibly, good, to socie- 
ty as the rich (if we look candidly into these rela- 
tions ;) and is of equal importance to the general in- 
terest of a republic that the mind of every one of its 
members be improved. Yet 1 fancy there is no harm 
in mentioning those steps wherein mankind appear to 
have erred, the respects and degrees in which they 
conspicuously fall short of perfection ; for it is the lamp 
of their own errors that must eventually conduct them 
into the right path : for till a man see that he has err'd, 
he cannot purpose rectification ; and till he know 
wherein he has err'd, he cannot correct his conduct. 
There is another thing men fall out in, with regard 
to extending the advantages of public schools, and that 
is their way of administering those laws and prescripts 
they have before them, for their guide in this behalf, 
in towns and corporations. These societies very ge- 
nerally do not appropriate money enough annually to 
afford a competent remuneration to instructors for 
giving their time and talents to the superintendance 
of their schools. Because, forsooth, the civil authori- 
ties of the commonwealth have not enjoin'd and bound 
them to lay out a certain sum each year for education 
of their children, they no longer incline to do what 
they are not compelled to do ; but cramp this part of 
their expenses, out of a base niggardliness to the cause 
of intellectual nurture, which fosters the best interest 
of all classes of men. They appropriate a sum that 
is not sufficient to reasonably compensate well quali- 
fied persons to tutor their youth for a sufficient num- 
ber of months in the year, through all parts of their 
jurisdiction. The inhabitants of a town resolve upon 
laying out a certain sum to support a periodical teacher 
of piety, religion, and morality ; a certain sum to sup- 
port the 'poor;' other sums to repair public ways, 
buildings, occ, ; and give their voice to raise a certaki 



191 

sum to maintain schools; and this they are apt to cut 
short: surely they do not contemplate a very liberal 
subsistence to their agents in the business carried on 
in those schools. In the next place, when they have 
set out this fund, they are used to distribute it rather 
unequally among the several districts which for the 
purpose of disseminating the means of instruction, 
they divide their town or plantation into. They have 
a custom of giving the greatest share to the central 
part of their town, as if youth ought to be more learn- 
ed in the centre or most public part of a town than in 
the skirts. They likewise use to proportion this distri- 
bution among the others according to the numbers of 
children or of inhabitants in the respective districts, 
as if a small number of children did not need as skil- 
ful and capable an instructor and as many months' 
teaching, as a large number. Perhaps a little less 
time will serve, when things are manag'd aright; yet 
what teacher can afford to spend a month in attendance 
upon twenty pupils for a less compensation than he can 
upon sixty ? It is true a few children in collection, can 
learn more in a given time, than a large number, by 
the intervention of the concurrence of these circum- 
stances following: — studiousness in the children, faith- 
fulness in the teacher, and, what originates the former 
and supports the latter of these, judiciousness in the 
parents. This concurrence is precarious ; and is sel- 
dom recognized by any effectual influence on the pro- 
portion the time a small number requires to progress 
to the same degree of proficiency in the arts and scien- 
ces of life, bears to that which is required by a more 
numerous body. Again; it is a notorious fact, if 
young learners gather much in a short time, they are 
liable to lose it in a short interval while they recede 
totally from the scene of mental discipline; so that 
upon the whole, it is, evident that if one collection of 



193 

vouth needs a constant school, another does, without 
any regard to their numbers. 

Such a distribution as I have above noticed, which 
will be found to be pretty generally accustomed thro' 
those parts of civil society which are so far civilized 
as to make a public concern of education, has aristo- 
cracy upon the very face of it. But it is said, those 
neighborhoods who possessing the greatest share of 
wealth in the jurisdiction, contribute the bulk of the 
taxes wherefrom the maintainance of schools is drawn, 
ought to have the benefit of the greatest share, in the 
distribution : that having paid the most, they ought to 
receive the most. This reasoning is purely aristocra- 
tical : being no less than saying the rich ought to have 
more privilege of the public resources than the poor; 
or, that they ought to have privileges which the poor 
have not. For it being the popular authority which 
originated both this contribution and distribution, and 
they being an expedient adopted to promote the gene- 
ral good with what pretence to consistency can it be 
reckoned (as matter of advantage) the property of 
one individual or of one class of individuals, more 
than another? for, it is either public advantage or pri- 
vate advantage; and, if the one, cannot be the other. 
If therefore one man because he is rich, have a title to 
a greater share of the means of education than an- 
other who is poor, those means are no longer public, 
but partial and conditional, and a man shares the pri- 
vileges at the disposal of the public authority in pro- 
portion as he inherits private property: which is re- 
pressive of the design of all true morality; since, to 
aid the cause and scheme of philanthropy, is what es- 
sentially discriminates all just administration. The 
primary end of government being to improve the con- 
dition of the human family, by rendering them more 
secure and comfortable; and this in a general view, 
unexceptionably, of the whole* 



193 

There is a man who possesses a million, who pays 
a tax which goes to the support of the school of his 
precinc% to the amount of forty-five dollars, and has 
no child to educate. Also 2 one mile distant from him, 
within the same district, is another, who possessing not 
the means of life, pays no lax at all, that has six chil- 
dren in want of a constant instructor, who actually 
share the use and benefit of the other's money so far 
as it is appropriated to the medium of their education. 
I contend that this is perfectly just, and that the poor 
man rightfully participates the use of the rich man's 
money without rendering any thing in direct remune- 
ration for it, while the rich man himself does not: for 
what signifies public money designed for the bene- 
fit of the community, that is to come back to those 
who have contributed it, and a man in proportion as he 
is rich in private possessions, share the benefit of the 
appropriation of this? 

A good thing would be to limit the number of pupils 
in each school. For a small collection, such as from 
eighteen to twenty-five, is quite a sufficient number to 
divide that degree or attention which this subject claims 
from one man : for there is usually a sufficient variety 
of temper to be found within these limits, to competent- 
ly exercise the faculties of a supervisor in discerning 
and arranging apt means to quality the inexperienced 
with good morals and literary accomplishments. 
Again : in providing situations for these initiating 
exercises, men have too usually acted upon contracted 
plans. Their school houses are too small for the pur- 
pose. No pain or expense is spared to fit up a palace 
and to render a parlour where a man of quality and 
his wife, with occasionally a few intimate favorites 
and neighbours, are to sit and chat about forms and 
shadows, not only commodious in every respect, but 
superlatively elegant. But when a house is to be buil(t 
and furnished for the entertainment of the children of 

47 



194 

all who inhabit a certain district, and all who ever 
shall inhabit it, who are to attend there yearly and 
daily for the purpose of being habilitated with the ru- 
diments of the arts of life, very nice calculations are 
made about the expense. It would seem conclusive, 
to a strange spectator that they design 'd these huts 
for some diminutive race of inferior animals, as hens, 
cats, pigs, or rabbits; instead of abodes for rational 
beings, where they were to get those knacks and max- 
ims which were indispensable to their well-being in 
civil life. Indeed we shall find many of this kind, 
which are not so comfortable as hermits 9 cells. I have 
often been pleased with the ingenuity of several socie- 
ties I have conversed with, who, apologizing for the 
scantiness of their school rooms said, that when they 
first set up buildings of this sort, their children were 
very small, and there were but few of them.-*- These 
are the types of men's ideas of education. 

A building designed for a seminary ought to be spa- 
cious, because persons who croud, cannot make pro- 
gress in learning. This is a thing to which tranquilli- 
ty is absolutely necessary, even independently of the 
consideration of tempering the mind . Therefore every 
thing which either directly or indirectly conduces to 
•insure this incident, ought to be added, so far as it can 
be consistently with the relative condition of the pro- 
ject. Silence, tranquillity, regularity, and harmony, are 
admirably propitious to study and contemplation. A 
school house ought to be comfortable to that degree 
which affords all innocent enjoyments whereby home 
is made dear. To render books, school exercises, and 
the situations of them pleasant to children, is a thing 
more efficient to the interest of mankind in the concern 
of education, than men are apt generally to think. To 
this end, a nursery of children and youth, ought to be 
made as agreeable at least, as their homes are : yet to 
make them still more agreeable than their homes, 



195 

would operate very advantageously as an incitement, 
on them, to attend punctually and pursue faithfully the 
means of learning. Consequently, whatever the carpen- 
ter, the joiner, or the mason can contribute, that is pro- 
pitious to the promotion of this desideratum, consider- 
ate men will avail themselves of, without grudging. 
The same partiality we find exhibited in laying out 
that part of the public resources which is used to de- 
fray the expenses of building, as in procuring the 
other means of carrying on the operation of accom- 
plishing youth. Central parts of tow r ns and the most 
wealthy "portions of a society, are thought worthy of 
the largest, and most commodious and agreeable 
school-rooms. Another tiling wherein the commonal- 
ty jn these sorts of societies, very naturally blunder 
into some troublesome conjunctures, is their choosing 
of men for heir committed to keep in repair and fur- 
nish their scthool-houses, employ and sustain teachers, 
&c. by means of the appropriation of the public pro- 
perty assigned for such use, who through either inca- 
pacity, ignorance, indifference, or selfishness, abuse or 
neglect their trust, to the disgrace of communities, and 
to the injury of children and parents. A method 
with enlightened folks, is to choose one man in each 
district to lay out its quota of money for such pm- 
poses: and one is enough (in the name of common 
sense ;) for to what good end should such little servi- 
ces be divided among three or four persons, who 
dwelling at a distance from each other, might only en- 
cumber, if not utterly discourage valuable applicants 
(by referring to and depending on each other to do 
what belongs to the duty of all ;) or, disagreeing 
among themselves, breed quarrels and animosities be- 
tween themselves and their neighbours, about the forms 
and fashions of the means used for so important an 
object as forming the characters of youth ? For the 
human race is made up of youth, learnt good or evil, 



196 

and habitually exhibiting influential specimens of that 
wherewith they were early impressed. Now what can 
be more imminently perplexing to this business than 
deputing agents who are either incapable or indiffer- 
ent with regard to direct and efficient methods to ef- 
fectuate the receptory and ultimate scope of social ra- 
tional herein ? And what is the difference between 
an ignorant person, and ore indifferent, who without 
compunction neglects that which all sober persons de- 
pend on him to perform ? Since a man who knows 
not what to do, (yet being excuseable) no more disap- 
points or vacates, than one who knowing what is 
pertinent, what is best to be done, being capable of 
bringing all correctly about, out of an overweening 
regard to his private good, or out of laziness, pride, 
or spite, utterly neglects it ? And what is more natur- 
al than that ignorant people should adopt either the 
♦>ne or the other of these sorts of characters, unaware 
of the consequences ? Thus, is owing to the body of 
the people being ignorant of, and indifferent to, cor 
rect means of education, that we experience such dis- 
orders in the social world resulting from bad princi- 
ples and habits engendered in young persons. The 
mischief which this does, is this : such agents neglect 
to keep in repair a school-house such as they have ; in 
consequence of which, their school is confused, un- 
comfortable, of course unprofitable ; or else vacant 
Also from the same principle of neglect, they employ 
(very 'aptly)^ unfit persons to teach. Hence we ob- 
serve young, gay, giddy, and coxcomical persons oc- 
cupying the stations of teachers to our youth ;— who 
by a display of some fashionable foolery or other, as 
gaming, drinking, dancing, fiddling, gallanting, jesting, 
profanity, if they avail to teach some valuable arts, 
generally do more hurt than good, by distorting their 
morals with bad principles. But many others are 
promoted to this trust for their cheapness, who have 



- 197 

little pretension to skill in any part of what belongs 
to their office ; novices in arithmetic, in grammar, and 
such things as are most thought of as the proposita of 
this business. They are chosen out of economy of the 
people's expense, ia the presumptuous calculation on 
their gathering skill by the way of their exercise in 
teaching, which sometimes proves to be matter of fact ; 
yet if they be skilful to infuse morals, all other ac- 
complishments might be dispensed with (which yet is 
the farthest from their thoughts whose choicest inter- 
est is the most concerned in such a supervention;) but 
it falls out that those who have taken the steps fit to be 
good teachers of morality, have not failed of the other 
accomplishments required in the management of com- 
mon schools : hence we shall find these ignorant 
teachers commonly falling as short in this as mother 
respects. Others again, although they may possess 
the requisite habilitation adequate to conducting the 
business of tuition, are too lazy to put their talents 
into use ; who, suffering indolency to prevail over their 
deference to the object of education, feel no concern 
for the furtherance of the public interest in this par- 
ticular behalf. Yet such agents get such characters 
into these places as they happen to have the opportu- 
nity or the humour to make bargains with. All these 
things may fall out by mere chance; since it is not 
possible that they discern the qualities or foresee the 
managery of whom they employ, unless they happen 
to be neighbours or particular acquaintances of them, 
which is not a case that is universally incident. But, 
one thing is clear; if agents be not competent to the 
examination of teachers, judges of the fit accomplish- 
ments of instructors ; it is of little import how the 
latter sort of characters beat their heads about getting 
very nice qualifications : at least, if these deputed in- 
spectors be such as have not the art of reading, I see 
not to what end candidates for this kind of business 

*17 



198 

carry with them letters of recommendation, in travel- 
ling among such societies ; as in the round of my ob- 
servation might be noticed instances of a total asper- 
nation and disuse of this sort of documents, which 
ene might as well be altogether destitute of, were it 
not for the name of them ; which indeed answers 
more than the substance to those who could not com- 
prehend their purport, even if they could read them* 
After all, there is not so much to be feared from ignt- 
rant committees as depraved ones. Yet, if a fitly 
qualified person be employed in the department of in- 
struction, a society, frequently, gets quite a circum- 
scribed benefit from his labours. The common peo- 
ple are whimsical in this respect. Therefore the ad- 
vantage of public instruction is contracted, and schools 
made trifling, by the following circumstances. 

I. In consequence of some economical contrivance 
©r some other occurence, the teacher is lain to dereud 
for his daily sustenance upon some family with whom 
his genius does not perfectly accord. It is a subject of 
regret that professional teachers are not (what were 
for the honor and advantage of human societies) so 
far independent as to possess the means of living com- 
fortably out of the reach of the capricious humours of 
such as they by chance depend on lor employment. It 
jails out, moreover, to be a \^vy usual case that those 
who being competently endued, habitually inquire for 
this business, are \mor and have not established well- 
furnished homes. I think it some reflection upon so- 
cieties of civilized men, that this important profession 
is not so far respected as to yield a competence to a 
studious lift*,, without the interference of anxious plot- 
tings for sustenance 

The worst of it is, \\ is unavoidably incident that the 
teacher, especially if unsettled, contracts some tinc- 
lureof their turn of character with whom he ItVts; 
which, among the children of this world, being devious 



Uom the genuine views of true philosophy, is apt to 
carry his thoughts aside from such a track of specula- 
tion as is fit to arrange with equanimity and manage 
with a steady hand the business of his station. 

If. Sojourning amongst his employers, his hosts are 
sometimes inclined to quarrel with him about his ha- 
bits of regimen, diet, dress, or some trivial incident or 
other. The children of this world want gain. They 
grow weary of the trouble and expense of feeding, 
washing, and the like services they feel chained to, 
which wear hard on them in the want of that sympa- 
thy they have not, with studious persons. From these 
things come a strong prejudice against such persons : 
when the subjects of it seek by indirect means to ex- 
emplify their aversion ; — whence evil minded persons 
are stirred up to pick fiaws in their business, and make 
disturbance in schools. The students get into their 
heads, as quick as lightning, a hint of any sort of 
party, and take active parts, in very insolent forms. 
So their schools are often made matter of contention 
between suspicious neighbours, and the channels of 
useful lore poisoned by babyish antipathies. Besides; 
a boarding promiscuously with pupils is sometimes 
unpropitious to education by giving every one a fami- 
liarity with its teachers. This familiarity with the 
person and movement of their teacher, is used differ- 
ently by different scholars ; and though some will not 
turn it against the account of their proficiency, yet 
some have their deference intirely overcome by it> 
and from not fearing, come to despise their instructor. 

III. People being tenacious of little whimsical pe- 
culiarities of methods for managing children, all dif- 
ferent in almost every family from those of another, 
so that an instructor finding it difficult to use a dis- 
tinct system of treatment with each pupil, and keep a 
regular school, at the same time entertaining a predi- 
lection for a favorite system of Ins own; eventually 



goo 

none is welt pleased with his manners. From an in- 
ordinate attachment to the persons of offspring, too 
prevalent, people are so imprudently tender of their 
bodies as to be cruelly suspicious of the means of con- 
straint used by tutors. Some squeamish woman, cr 
uxorious tool of a petiicoated tyrant, is generally rea- 
dy to clapperclaw an austere tutor for striking some 
favourite pug, and, pestiferously breaking in upon this 
critical and vexing employ, with indiscriminate slander, 
against a sort of form in punishing (to which is super- 
added every circumstance of reproachful contumely 
that may aggravate,) sets tha prerogative of the pro- 
fession at open contempt. These things being suffered 
to be, discourages the best instructors from persever- 
ing in a good system of man age ry. 

LV\ The parents in general neglecting to cultivate 
the art of education at home, and not concurring with 
<n>od practitioners of the art in those measures they 
deliberately adopt for the training of their children to 
knowledge and virtue; which uninterruptedly carried 
into operation, would not fail to effectuate the desired 
habituation. But a variance between tutors and pa- 
rents, tends to make void the benevolent purposes of 
public teaching, because it vitiates children by cherish- 
ing the seeds of insolence, ingratitude, disobedience. 
&c. That part of education which people are the 
most universally delinquent in endeavoring to bring 
'forward in their offspring, by their early treatment, is 
vwral education. To discern the right methods to 
radicate true moral principles, and to begin habits of 
amiable action in adolescent minds, is a delicate piece 
of work ; to apply them aright, a critical duty which 
implies integrity. We find this wofull y shunned. The 
children of this world are averse to whai is serious, if 
it partake not of mystery. Romance and mystery 
have the knack to awaken admiration, fear, horror, as- 
tonishment, and seem to excite a train of solemn re- 



20i 

flections: but any thing whose prime and immediate 
use is the application of their powers to some business 
which may be necessary to be repeated, they have a 
iixed antipathy to. Therefore our children grow into 
youth without being tutored to those amiable duties 
which would make them a source of comfort and de- 
light to all around them. To improve constraint, and 
make it effectual by repetition and attention, fences 
with their love of the children's persons, and their 
love of ease. And now this gentry of ten or twelve 
years' standing, are troublesome scholars ; for, not ac- 
customed to restraint, they ill brook the trammels of 
such rules as are proper for tlu regulation of a school. 
To reduce such to peaceful subordination, is out of the 
question without the concurrence of their parents; 
and even with it, is generally m almost insurmounta- 
ble task to reverse, at this period, all the bad habits 
which have got footing in the reign of licentiousness; 
to effectuate restraint; and at the same time to make 
study so pleasing as to insure proficiency: yet it is 
never too late to set about the pursuit of rectitude. 
The greater the difficulty arising from inveteracy, the 
greater the urgency of reformation. This humoursome 
dotage on the bodies of children, which makes people 
irreconcileable to coercive correction, is that* which 
strikes at the essential roots of rectification. And this 
it is which makes the occupation of a public tutor to a 
common school, the most capricious, perplexing, and 
unthankful office in the world. For the common peo- 
ple's children are trained in such a careless manner 
that there is no living with them in any peace without 
correcting them ; and the parents are so whimsically 
suspicious of the oppression of their darlings under 
the hands of those of whom they use themselves to 
entertain diminutive ideas, that there is no living in 
comfort if they do correct them. Therefore education 
should begin at home. Those principles which we 



202 

conscientiously wish other public tutors to cultivate, 
we ought carefully to plant as soon as the soil is fit to 
receive them. The earlier t!>;sis done, the easier and 
more prosperous the cultivation is. Whereas when 
this sci! is left to engender all manner of noisome and 
worthless weeds, merely for the want of turning our 
thoughts to the planting, dressing, and tending of what 
is valuable, to expect instructors to raise good charac- 
ters upon this foundation at the age of twelve years, 
till which time we have remained indifferent to our 
own obligations, is imposing much what as reasonable 
a task as the Egyptiansdid upon the children of Israel. 
To kill all that has taken root, is laborious ; and pain- 
ful to the subjects too. whom it must reduce (in regard 
to self-government) to the condition of infants again. 
A dallying nugacity seems very prevalently to take 
the place of a serious estimate of this business- 

2dly. Those laws which prescribe the measures ot 
proceeding in the business of the school itself, are of- 
ten found defective, and unpropitious to the interest 
of the society for whose benefit the seminary is insti- 
tuted. These must vary with the tutors. Of unskilful 
professors we are not to expect good regulations. Par- 
tiality is a thing which is very apt to worm itself into the 
systems of those who depend on particular households 
of those who employ them, for their daily sustenance. 
So, it often happens that a teacher being young and de- 
pendant, let him be ever so well qualified in talent and 
erudition, and even if he be disposed to put into oper- 
ation the best moral systems, tends to conform a little 
to the inclinations of such as he depends on. having 
something of a predilection to please (by way of treat- 
ment of their children) those who serve him most. 
Being destitute of the possession of substance, one 
must have great temptation, in such plight, to let a 
scrupulous regard of morality yield to the preservation 
of existence. In consequence of this concourse of 
circumstances, some irregularities take place in the 



SOS 

business of a school when it happens one scholar suf- 
fers punishment while another has impunity for the 
same transgression; which has a demoralizing effect 
upon a collection of young. Sowie teachers are in the 
practice of mai staining one 6ystem of government 
during one day, and substituting another the next : it 
being no other thing in effect, when we put laws in 
force at one time, and by and by suffer them to be 
trampled down without reserve ; as it is little other 
than holding different individuals under separate sys- 
tems of government, to punish one and connive at 
another for the same sort of action. Different sorts 
of punishment, adapted to the dispositions of the of- 
fenders, accordngto the motives that respectively op- 
erate in their minds, which constitute the measure of 
their turpitude, are the peculiarity of school govern- 
ment, which ought to distinguish it from what is usu- 
ally operable in governments of commonwealths. 
* Punishment should be mild but certain, 5 has been ad- 
vanced for a general maxim of school government, 
and is one which, I fancy, few rational observers can 
frame any plausible objections to. There be, however, 
as to all general rules, exceptions to its applicability. 
"We shall find some young persons with such tempers, 
and habits of such sort and inveteracy as nothing 
short of severity avails to reverse. This custom of 
putting laws strictly into force one day or owe week, 
and slackening the reins of coercion the next, grows 
into a habitual circle of action, which affects both 
master and pupils; when correspondent feelings in 
both the one and the other, recur with the return of the 
alternate periods discriminated by these different ways 
of passing the time. Such a managery is notoriously 
inauspicious ; and on no account perhaps more than on 
this; it is impossible for scholars to get stability by 
such treatment. For children to get the habit of con- 
stancy, they must needs have the example of itset be- 



204 

tore them in some form or other, at least so tar as to 
keep them in uniform subordination to fixed prescripts 
by awe of penal sufferance if no other considerations 
be made to operate such a condition ; so that they 
shall feel themselves as accountable for the same con- 
duct one day as another. 

The il I effects of this sort of proceeding are in a 
great measure reduced when the teacher to shuffle off 
the burden of adjudication from day to day, calls his 
subjects to account for the misgoings of a preceding 
day, or of two or three preceding days : which method 
I think in some situations is commendable ; although 
its advantage depends much on continuance ; and 
continuance is necessary to get the benefit of all moral 
things, which nothing but repetition can improve. For 
I must confess that in addition to simplyfying the busi- 
ness of the teacher, it affords these good effects. 

1. It tends to strengthen the memory. Pain, dis- 
grace, sorrow, have the knack of fixing ideas on the 
memory, as well as pleasure, joy, commendation. Cer- 
tain circumstances may attend these painful emotions; 
certain ideas may concomitate them, which tend to 
heighten their effects and deepen the impressions made 
by them. And when a scholar is called to account for 
faults he has committed on two or three preceding 
days while he had no apprehension of their bringing 
any disaster on himself, and punished for them in an 
impressive manner; he, after that, when he thinks of 
those sorts of action which he feels an inclination to 
do on the presumption of escaping the notice or re- 
tribution of a supervisor, is apt to remember the trou- 
ble they once brought on him as an instituted conse- 
quent when he had entertained no suspicion of it, and 
of course gets a habit ot remembering from day to day 
and from week to week, the tendency and effects of 
certain manners of conduct. Now punishments may 
be too frequent ; when by immediately following every 



205 

transgression they grow familiar, and either begin to 
assume a disgustful appearance that makes a bad im- 
pression; harden the heart as well as the hide, or else 
repress the ardour of intellectual liberty, and make 
the sufferers, as irretrievable outcasts, defy good au- 
thorities. Some certain degree of novelty is requisite 
to attract notice to an object. 

2. It improves the moral sense. When the atten- 
tion of a child is seriously drawn to past actions, fer 
which he is to account when all incitements and temp- 
tations have receded, and fixed to them by some af- 
fecting punishment whereby he is made sensible they 
were unreasonably offensive to his superiors, this 
power of distinguishing right and wrong of his volun- 
tary actions, is brought into exertion, and gets ascen- 
dancy by use. The moral sense is called also the mo- 
ral faculty. Every faculty is strengthened by em- 
ployment The exercise of any faculty or part of the 
human system, strengthens it. The exercise of the 
memory produces a retentive mind, and makes a good 
historian. Habitual exercise of the arms, makes one 
strong in the labors of art. And the exercise of the 
moral faculty by the occasions of discriminating the 
good and evil of one's own conduct, begets a habit of 
nicely distinguishing right and wrong. 

3. It gives rise to a habit of reflection. When a 
child is punished for and seriously put in mind of, ac- 
tions which are gone by, and the occasions of them 
succeeded by diverse trains of perception, the ideas 
of which actions being impressively associated with. 
the existing circumstantiality of his retribution; when 
the latter recurs. to remembrance it brings the other 
along with it : which together with some degree of 
solemnity impressed on his thoughts by the occasion, 
tends to accustom him to take a retrospective view of 
his past conduct. Thus by being forc'd upon a re- 
view of what they have done from day to day, children 

18 



206 

get a habit of this sort of reflection, which otherwise 
were superseded by a heedless frivolity, wherein the 
the trains of volition that make up their usual con- 
duct, were as so many traces on loose sand, whereof 
there can be no collected ectype ever to serve a faith- 
ful representation. The same thing cultivates sym- 
pathy. And the contemplative frame it leads to, fa- 
vours the improvement of all the faculties. 

4 It forms a great circle of action, that is happily 
subversive of many bad habits, and propitious to moral 
improvement. When children are inured to the re- 
currence of periods of retribution at every two or 
three days, when all their little aberrations from rec- 
titude are to be eventilated, search ? d out, and weigh'd 
in the scales of justice, the very sensibility of such a 
plight keeps them from several arrant pursuit* which 
might engender pernicious associations. And the ve- 
ry habit is an important one; and admirably advances 
moral rectification. Bat the chief advantage of this 
way, is its conducement to a habit of steadiness in 
thought and action. The larger any circle of action 
is, i. e. the more distant its periodical points of recur- 
rence, the more (if I mistake not) it opposes levity: 
for I fancy I discover in this, some analogy to slow 
motion of the spirits. Therefore, this promotes sta- 
bility. 

There are those employed in this department, 
who feel above their business: with whom the con- 
cerns of their charge have so little attraction, that 
they conceive it a burden to take cognizance of all 
the faults of their pupils. To such is dangerous to 
trust education. Others again, through mere laziness, 
having begun a good course of discipline, neglect to 
go through with it. The business of conducting a 
public school, in the present state of human society, 
is unquestionably irksome; therefore it requires one 
who not only is capable of, but delights in, vigorous 
exercises ot mind ; and one who, having a capacity 



207 

of extensive speculation, can make himself hap[ 
with diverse trains (5f thought, which have ascendancy 
over the concerns of his station without interrupting 
his punctual attendance to them. Minds of this cast 
not being every day met with among the common peo- 
ple, methinks since this sort of characters is somewhat 
rare, it behooves social men to make the occupation of a 
teacher a respectable one, both by endowing it with 
encouraging salaries, that those who being well quali- 
fied every way for that sort ot service have different 
resources of comfortable sustenance, may be induced 
to engage their talents in it ; and by a suitable defer- 
ence to the character of tutors, regarding them (as 
gome other mechanic adepts) as being persons possessed 
of some accomplishments ourselves have not. But 
what from niggardliness, ignorance, aversion to the 
signs of studiousness, excessive storge, pride, depra- 
vity of morals in the generality of people or particu- 
larly in those in whom they repose agency, or poverty 
in those who offer to teach ; it falls out that a great 
part of the civilized world are from time to time 
served with such characters to fill this department, as 
they can make nothing but eye servants : it seeming 
necessary to dictate and critizise such as having not 
the respect some mechanics get, feel not the stimulus 
of a sense of honor, in the want of a pecuniary re- 
muneration, to excite them to emulation or eminence 
in the duties of their calling. 

The first thing taught from books, is the alphabet, 
or set of rudimental characters that are the ingredients 
of written language. Inconsiderate persons were us'd 
to teach these in the order they found them set down 
in a row, without varying it. When a child has learn- 
ed to apply the true sound to each of these characters 
as they are ranged in a train either perpendicular or 
horizontal, he no more knows, in consequence of that 
acquirement, how to apply them to the same objects 



§08 

standing in different positions and habitudes, than the 
musical tyro, who has simply got the names of his 
notes in one succession as they stand in the order of 
the gamut, knows how to perform a piece of harmony ; 
or a sawyer, who has been constantly accustomed to a 
vibration of his arms up and down or horizontally, 
knows, merely by dint of that, to exactly hand and 
reef the cordage of a vessel. For this connecting of 
certain sounds with the impression of certain figures, 
is a sort of mechanical association, that with those who 
do not extensively reason, as strongly implicates the 
situation of those figuies*as the figures themselves : and 
the way to catenate the articulation with the figure and 
determine the name to that, separately from all other 
circumstances, is to practice the connection (by shewing, 
&c.) in all possible situations and habitudes they can be 
placed in, whether by retrograding or alternating the 
order in which they are usuaUy arranged. Associa- 
tions are either in trains or tribes. A train of sounds 
or movements may be learned by what is ealled rote, 
when one suggests or introduces the succeeding .— So 
there is no more ado than to say A, and the whole En- 
glish alphabet comes into the imagination of a child. 
But it is necessary to discipline children to a more 
studied association, wherein all incidents not essential 
to the concernment of the designed habilitation, are 
disconsideted. It is impossible for a child to get a 
perfect knowledge of an alphabet, by repeating it only 
in one order of succession. 

Next: the next literary thing we are used to incul- 
cate on young minds, is the putting the names of char- 
acters together, into syllables; which operation must 
be so nicely attached to, as to be suggested by, the 
ideas of the figures of those characters which answer 
to those sounds which in another view are called 
names of the characters, the nature of which is mere- 
ly to represent those sounds or tones ; which are but a 



SO!) 

part of the multiform machinery made use of to re- 
present ideas in one man's mind, to others 9 who have 
not the same scene of perception and imagination. 
To frame words with these, is vain to attempt before 
there is a determinate and certain knowledge and full 
distinction of all the characters here used to form 
words. Some of the common people imagine if a 
pupil has gone over a certain tract of pages by put- 
ting together the sounds of the letters, of which he 
has made syllables, and of these given utterance to 
words, he is just so far advanced in the art of reading. 
But proficiency is not to be measured by pages ; it be- 
ing discriminated by aptness and retentiveness : to 
acquire which, we continue the operation of regular 
repetition, with all manner of entertaining accompani- 
ments that are compatible. Every simple sound used 
m a language, should be represented by a distinct 
character. Most cultivated languages being made up 
by the lingo's of different nations, are notably erro- 
neous in this respect. The english language is greatly 
encumber'd and perplex'd by silent characters, put 
into some words, which having a capacity of represen- 
tation of sound in other words, illude learners. Upon 
the numerous cases, of silent h in bright, silent t's, o's, 
e's, and w?s in some words and audible in others, 
would be tiresome to expatiate. Yet such is the in- 
veteracy of these forms, we cannot expect a reforma- 
tion of language. Pupils should be taught the proper 
meanings of words and exercised in the means of re- 
taining those meanings as soon as they come to be ca- 
pable of reading correctly. Whenever they have the 
habit of justly modulating their sound, and giving to 
every letter, syllable, word, and sentence, its proper 
utterance, the true signification of every word, (or at 
least every one it is important to exercise their reten- 
tion about) should be associated with it. To this end, 
it is propitious to get into their heads as spon as possi* 

*18 



210 

uie, such abstract ideas as sorts of signs: and to teach 
sorts and tribes of words by proceeding from the pri- 
mary stock, or principal, to all the gradual variations 
which by various terminations or inceptions distin- 
guish the particulars one from another, whereof those 
bundles or tribes are constituted. In so doing we in- 
troduce a strong and extensive association which sub- 
serves excellent purposes in the way of their gathering 
knowledge, both of language and things themselves : 
wherein are involved the idea's of different words 
connected by resemblance, the ideas of their several 
meanings in the same connection of resemblance, the 
ideas of the particular variations by which they are 
distinguished, the ideas of their proper sounds, and 
the idea of the dependance of one word upon another 
by its relation of derivation. Thus those which are 
called inseparable prepositions, such as un, re, (lis, dL 
sub, pre, trans, super, en, per, have their determinate 
original meaning, which being superadded to, modify, 
those of the words to which they are joined. Als©, tfie 
terminations tied, rial, ciatc, ion, ate, tktte, ion, sioti, 
lng>fy, ly, and the like, have their significance, by 
which the words to which they are affixed are qualified 
and made to be of a different class, in the respect of 
signification, from what they were without them. The 
meaning of each of these should be noted, and the ef- 
fect it has upon the word it is united to. This pro- 
ceeding exercises them in abstraction as well as atten- 
tion, while it extends their knowledge of language, 
It is frivolous to enter upon arithmetic and syntax be- 
fore the faculty of judging has some aptness. There 
be means which may advance the discerning faculty; 
which, without dignity and importance be annexed tu 
'the duties and rules of a school, fail of that degree of 
stability, gravity, and pertinency, indispensable to a 
successful pursuit of truth and excellence. For if a 
scholar considers the laws of his school of no impor- 



211 

tance ; and the feelings of his instructor, no concern- 
ment of his conduct ; and consequently feels no weight 
of obligation to obey and reverence that instructor ; 
what improvement can we expect him to get from the 
privileges oi public tuition ? What application of 
mind to the instituted business of the school ? What 
concern for his advancement, in one who rates his 
station a frivolously complimental tribute to some nu- 
gatory or malevolent project of aristocracy ? For 
some have reason to think their confinement in school 
is a recourse to answer some bye-end of their parents 
or teachers : to keep them out of the way, or make the 
vulgar world think they have a' good education' or 
that their parents have a concern for seriously improv- 
ing their children in good accomplishments ; or else, 
the emolument of the teacher : the latter has place 
when the tuition of each scholar is done for a stated 
premium per day, week, month, quarter, or year: 
which arrangement, generally is not without perni- 
ciousness enough ; for it puts in the power of every 
child, and every pettish old woman to injure the teach- 
er, by encroaching on his subsistence, in a way of 
circumscription. 

It is necessary that one understand what he reads, 
before he advance in grammar. No proficiency can 
be made in etymology and syntax, before the mean» 
ings of the words used in common discourse not 
only, but of those used in the plainest of elegant 
writing, are comprehended and made familiar to 
the understanding. For while one is ignorant of 
the signification of the words made use of to describe 
the elements of those parts of grammar, in vain may 
we hope to infix the ideas of those elements in his 
memory by the futile ceremony of iterating set taskg 
or lessons of those descriptive discourses to learn them 
by heart, which leave, in effect, nothing there but those 
empty sounds and figures without any determinate 
impression of significance, or else an erroneous one^ 



21S 

For the whole substance of these departments of sci- 
ence is little else but a string of definitions ; and a 
definition supposes the person to whom it is given, to 
have previous knowledge of the meanings of the words 
of which it is composed ; which since those young 
persons have not who read grammars having not been 
otherwise task'd to commit them to memory, they can- 
not get the ideas grammar writers would convey them. 
There is an inured extravagance in many of our 
seminaries, of pushing pupils forward, as if their pro- 
ficiency were to be determined by the place or book 
they had reaclrd in the course of their reading. 
Hence some we find are hurried into the study of 
grammar before they understand any thing that is 
written about it. This has injurious effects on many ; 
for in the first place, by what they are accustomedto 
recite without understanding it, they contract a habit 
of inattention to books: since a continual reiteration 
of sensitive ideas, such as meanless sounds or motions, 
where the attention is not attracted and fixed to any 
serious notices, is but an irksome piece of drudgery : 
so that the attention (if I may so speak) is wearied 
away from every thing that relates to the sub- 
jects those sounds are designed to express. Where- 
fore I think cultivating the memory by charging it 
with unmeaning sounds which are no way pleasing or 
interesting to their minds, is apt to make dull scho- 
lars. I incline to think that for this purpose of im- 
proving the memory, it is best to exercise the young 
with tasks which contain valuable moral sentiments 
expressed in agreeable language with some degree of 
wit ; or else, pleasing descriptions of natural things. 
In the next place, the form or shadow passing for the 
substance, with their preceptor, their parents, friends 
and neighbours, scholars having regularly traversed by 
recitation certain chapters, books, tracts of science or 
art for the second, third, and perhaps fourth time, are 



213 

apt to be proud of their knowledge before they have 
got it, and make their boast that they have been en- 
tirely through such or such institutes at such an age ; 
when upon a critical exploration of their real erudi- 
tion, it will be found like a grain of wheat in a bushel 
of chaS; their heads being stufPd with the ideas of 
sounds and figures without the ideas of their determi- 
nate significancy and use. As little ground have we 
to expect a child to make any progress in arithmetic 
before the judgment has a habit of being exercisM in se- 
rious concerns. Such a habUitation (respecting the 
judgment) belongs to the moral part of the business 
of eSucation, which, as 1 think has been sufficiently 
evinced, depends mostly on parents. There be, ne- 
vertheless, means, whereby the indication of moral 
principles may be advanced in public schools ; and 
common sense teaches that this ought to be the fore- 
most concern in such institutions. Literary and sci- 
entific principles require much repetition, to make a 
leep impression. To effect a permanent nxure in the 
young mind, of any thing that is not apt to please at 
irst, or any thing that does not bring along with itself 
some firm intervolution either as cause or effect or 
some anterior association to any other that prevails, 
some eminent degree of pleasure, delight, satisfaction, 
jv else pain, is not fixed so surely in the power of 
nemory without move repetition whereby it gets a 
connection with some very common and influential 
_ erceptions than that which coming in with strong sen- 
sation either of pleasure or pain, is thereby durably 
imprinted. The common objects of perception ex- 
citing some degree of pleasure or pain, and their no- 
velty invariably carrying pleasure, make lasting im- 
pressions upon the un practised sensorium, and are long 
retained, even during life. But whatever implicates 
the application of the reasoning faculty, requires the 
notice of it to be many times repeated, to be familiarly 



214 

incident to recollection. Therefore systems of gram- 
mar, logic, or arithmetic, cannot be thoroughly learned 
by young children till, by a course of exercises repea- 
ted, their judgement, with regard to such objects, 
is mature ; not even by any contrivance that shall 
make them perceive all the parts of the system, and 
their connexion ; and this for the following reasons. 

1st. There is not pleasure enough attends the per- 
ception of such an object to make an effecting impres- 
sion, with influence to continue its efficiency. For 
there is no great pleasure nor pain in the perception of 
a set of grammar rules or of problems in arithmetic, 
Hor in that of the signs that represent them, as there 
is in the sight of the rainbow, a watch, a beautiful 
bird, a cascade, or any thing sublime, surprizing, or 
so pathetic or excrutiating as to make irresistible way 
into all the ties of retention. 

2diy. It is too complex an object to make such an 
impression immediately ; for it requires an exertion of 
the understanding energies to apprehend its parts 
clearly. By t\\Q young it cannot be instantaneously 
comprehended ; and, of course, what is retained, is 
not the ascendant power to apply it in all its parts and 
relations, to its appropriate ends, but is partial, being; 
some accidental glimpse of a part, that has been cir- 
cumstantially affecting. 

Sdly. It involves the use of the faculty of reason- 
ing, which must be trained by gradations of essays, 
and in the nature of its business implies the frequent 
repetition of notices, to examine things whereof they 
are, on all sides, and compare them together;— a great 
part of the business of reasoning consisting in the 
comparing of ideas. Of consequence, machines for 
teaching grammar, whereby the sorts of words, and 
rules for their arrangement and constructure into sen- 
tences, with their several classes and connections de 
lineated on conspicuous surfaces, are successively dis- 



Mb 



closed by revolution of mechanical forces, although 
they may make effectual impressions on adults whose 
discursive powers are practised to an ascendant expert- 
ness, are not very serviceable to the young, in whom 
although all the parts of that art or science are here 
made sufficiently clear to their senses, yet their intel- 
lectual powers are not trained to discern the true ap- 
plication and references of these parts without a more 
deliberate and repetitious process than the motions and 
figures of these machines admit of. 

4thly. Another reason why machiues for teaching 
any such sciences as grammar, arithmetic, logic, are 
not perfectly answerable to their end, is this : — In or- 
der to render the maxims that make up those systems 
so familiar as to be readily applicable on all occasions 
in common life, their connection must be diffused by 
associations with a large number of different percep- 
tions that take place in the course of it ; and this re- 
quires time. Whereas when by one of these machines 
the several parts of a system are obtruded rapidly up- 
on the sense, although the impression may be striking, 
yet its effects are not thereby so interfused with the 
parts of the ordinary tenour of our perceptions as to 
make it sufficiently permanent or familiar: for the 
depth of an impression does not depend more upon 
the emotion that attends it than upon the variety of its 
associatians. 

There is a certain contemperament of intellectual 
operations, opposed to all violent movement as serene 
weather to a storm, wherein the understanding being 
susceptible of clear and adequate ideas, and the mo- 
ral faculty of energy while no corrupt bias is derived 
from inordinate passion, the human soul may be turned 
to the most noble aims, by the medium of the contem- 
plation of that which is seriously useful, good and con- 
sequential ; even till it attain to very abstract views, 
This condition of mind and temper h I tiunk the 



216 

same the latins called placida et quieta constantiai 
which being peculiarly propitious to the superindue- 
tion of all valuable principles, moral, literary, scienti- 
fical, or mechanical, admirably serving as an inlet for 
every durable accomplishment desirable for rational 
beings in a state of society to possess, methinks we 
ought to labour to establish, as a fundamental prinei 
pie whereon to superstruct the main works of educa- 
tion. Whereupon, I fancy it will not be a miss here 
to take a stand to make some remarks upon this thing, 
and endeavour to find out some means which may con 
tribute to the production of this desirable frame. And 
first, it is evident this is an habilitation which concerns 
not oniy the current of our thoughts ; but also the re- 
lative energy and the degrees of the passions. Our 
perceptions are more clear herein, than when distur- 
bed by a confusing supervention, from levity and gid- 
diness, that hurries the intellectual eye from one di- 
vergent view to another, without the satisfaction of use, 
resulting from attention and contemplation. This is 
a hastiness of animal spirits, peculiar to passionateness 
and opposed to tranquility. Reflection and its several 
operations combine more sublime pleasure there : even 
in the case of an obtrusion of real resources of sorrow, 
contemplation has the knack to find out a degree of 
satisfaction, which casual remeniscence barters for 
horror. But the pass being habituated to a state of 
due subordination to the ascendant operation of the 
faculty of reasoning ; this power being directed by the 
moral faculty to speculative virtue, regulates the man 
into a course of prudence ; and upon private, depends 
public, tranquility. The contemperation of the pas- 
sions is the greatest benefit we immediately get from 
this frame. Now when the trains of our ideas which 
succeed one another in every part of our waking ex- 
istence, move calmly and clearly, and seem to flow in 
a regular unruffled stream, the will has greater ascen- 



S17 

dancy over them in the several forms of voluntary 
thinking, as attention, contemplation, composition or 
compounding, study, abstraction, recollection, compar- 
ing, discerning, &c, than when by too quick motion of 
the spirits and ungovernM state of the passions, they 
are incessantly interrupted. These things are essen- 
tial to the influence of reason over moral conduct. 
Secondly : tranquillity concerns not only the course of 
thought and the energy of passions, but also the moral 
faculty. There is in man a power or attribute that is 
by some called the moral faculty ; sometimes it is 
called the moral power, sometimes the moral sense, 
sometimes the moral principle; (while the same 
thing passes, with some, under the name conscience ;) 
which is the faculty of distinguishing moral good and 
evil, accompanied in its act of discerning, with the 
approbation of one kind of actions, and disapproba- 
tion of another, according to their general tendency. 
This seems to be merely a modification of the primary 
faculty of discerning, being distinguished from it only 
by the designation ol its objects being voluntary ac- 
tions, and the accompaniment of delight and pain with 
that discernment of those objects. From which some 
may inter that the developement of this trait of the 
human character, must wait on the advancement of 
judgment: yet we find this appears very early in life ; 
and infants of a year or two seem to discover, on se- 
veral occasions, exquisite conceptions of right and 
wrong; which yet cannot be supposed to have very 
accurate discernment of things; much les3, mature 
judgment. Besides, a man who discerns ever so ex- 
quisitely the nice diversities of all other things, yet # 
never the more feels those peculiar emotions of plea- 
sure and pain which accompany the ideas of good and 
bad actions Excellence in this, does not follow per- 
spicacity in other respects. The most perspicacious 
persons are not always the most sympathetic or the 
moat compunctious. Therefore this faculty has by 
19 



218 

some philosophers been reckoned a distinct part of hu- 
man nature, and I think for the purposes of morality, 
very aptly. Brutes are not supposed to possess it: 
yet if I mistake not, some brutes have indicated com- 
punction ; and compunction cannot be without it, in 
some shape or degree. Finalty it seems unquestion- 
ably evident that this peculiarity accrues from the 
combined causation of sympathy and rationality. The 
degree of force with which this sort of distinguishing 
faculty acts, and the emotions that accompany the act, 
are clearly affected by placida et quieta constantia. 
In the bustle of inordinate and irregular gratifications, 
in the eager career of curiosity and ambition, we can- 
not pathetically recognize the discernment of moral 
relations because our passions are moved by other ob- 
jects; and things are used to be estimated good and 
evil as they are causes of other sorts of pleasures and 
pains than those which pertain to the perception of 
such relations. Silence and solitude promote true 
comparisons of moral things; and silence and solitude 
are the sensible types of tranquillity. 

I proceed to point out some of the most likely means 
which may contribute to substantiate this desirable 
frame of mind. I think this auspicious trim of the in- 
telligent system is capable of being accelerated by the 
following measures. 

1. By mild nutriment. High stimula habitually 
used, have a tendency to irritate and inflame the 
stronger passions, as desire, anger, jealousy, hatred, 
&c. ; and they manifestly counterwork thorough re- 
flection in several ways : for in the first place, if the 
stimulus be in any degree inebriating, the intervention 
of vertigo immediately deranges the faculties and con- 
fuses the conceptions of the understanding by hallu- 
cinating the medium of perception. Or if otherwise, 
as food, — excessive meals directly bring on heaviness, 
since they crowd the vessels, overwear the secretory 



219 

organs, and obviate celerity in the internal revolutions 
of the animal machinery. A certain degree of stimu- 
lus invigorates all powers. Excessive stimulus iterated, 
weakens the system Plethory, and certain sorts of 
aliments and drinks, introduce morbid qualities into 
the blood : and viscid humours getting head, incur ir- 
regularity in sensorial movement;— and this is in a 
great measure the standard of reflective movement. 
Now a course of mild diet, by repressing all violent 
motion in the body, makes the operations of the mind 
calm and regular. Intestine violence in the animal 
machinery, from gluttony, drunkenness, or the use of 
that which abounds with unwholesome particles or with 
such as have a corrosive action, necessitates the re- 
course of irregular voluntary motions to mitigate the 
pain by diversion or interruption. Thus in the pain- 
ful sensations attending pressure from flatulency or 
hard substances in the stomach, some relief is accus- 
tomed by a constant struggle of voluntary exertion. 
As has been heretofore observed, voluntary counteract 
sensitive motions : which yet when assumed by starts 
with repulsive view, are incompatible with the prose- 
cution of regular speculation. Now multitudes of the 
eommonalty think there is nothing that they can do to 
infants to make them quiet, i. e. habitually mild. Yet 
I presume to assert this, — if parents would merely 
inure their offspring to a course of mild stimulus, such 
as milk, (which is intirely nutritive,) and neither allow 
them to taste strong or harsh matters as spirits, fer- 
mented liquors, spices, and the like, in any other form 
than tiiat of necessary medicine, they would exhibit 
softer tempers, more obsequious passions, and be more 
ductile and tractable to all the purposes of intellectual 
and moral improvement. By this process I fancy it is 
easy to prevent that peevishness and squalling so in- 
cident to infants. This expedient, that places the 
foundation of intellectual serenity in the constitution 



220 

of the body, has an efficiency which is more extensile 
than many are aware of. 

2. By early exercise of reason. The powers em- 
ployed in reasoning, are as susceptible of amplification 
and refinement by use, as any other faculties. Early 
trials of reason if they be about moral modes and 
relations, are remarkably propitious to the cause of 
human education. There are other ways of exercis- 
ing reason than by the rules of logic. The reason of 
infants must be trained by odd methods: by verbal 
and moral exemplification. There is a pathetic way 
of exciting the use of reason : a way to allure the ty- 
ro to use reason. By moving the passions on certain 
occasions we allure the young to the resort of the 
exercise of this faculty. For if the passions be, as 
has been often asserted, the " springs of action," I 
see not but the}' must sometimes operate as springs to 
this mode of voluntary thinking as well as any other 
sort of action. A habit of reasoning about causes and 
effects, approximates placidity; for it prevents sur- 
prize, and improves sympathy by the use it makes of 
the experience of others. 

S. By regularity in arrangement of business. Re- 
gularity contributes to the facility of business; and 
facility supersedes that perplexity which makes busi- 
ness a source of misery. Regularity in the arrange- 
ment of the several parts of the employment and use 
of time, whether in schools or in other stations, grad- 
ually introduces a general habit of regularity in think- 
ing : and this supersedes the confusion and irregulari- 
ty that come from the inordinate violence of habitually 
excessive passion. 

4. By soft and gentle speaking. A soft answer 
tumeth away wrath, says the proverb; and we have 
no conception of the charming effect this has upon the 
temper, any farther than we notice a regular expert 
iment of it. Look into the domestic circle. See 



whether you often find calm contemplation and ten- 
der dispositions in those whose parents and guides are 
habitually vociferous. 

5. By example of signs of the thing itself, we 
would promote. People contract yawning from the 
impulsion of others setting a pattern of it. The per- 
cipient frame is incited to imitate all imitable move- 
ments it observes in correspondent systems : and from 
the same principle as by what hyatus and yawning, and 
certain smiles and scowls, are propogated from one 
person to another, this placidity of mind and temper 
we are now alluding to. is in a greater or less degree 
transfused. Very fine fibres in one system, move in 
imitation of other. A habit of moderate and gentle 
ways of communication, scrupulous moving, and in 
general, benignant conduct as social beings, if con- 
stancy concentre with them, are effectively impres- 
sive upon the minds of the rising generation when the 
latter have not received any adverse bias. If a par- 
ent or a constant tutor be mild and inoffensive in his 
words and actions (and a person may possess wit, 
jocularity, humour, without obstreperousness) it is de- 
lightsome to see how wonderfully apt children are to 
copy the temper whereof these manners are the 
ectypes. For if the stock is apt to reason, the off- 
spring we usually find is so likewise, very early: If apt 
to consider, and exercise prudence in his proceedings, 
the offspring is used to pause, to deliberate, to be calm, 
and hush, as if to give place to reflection. A vocife- 
rous nettlesome child generally descends from such as 
are tinctured with some degree of those qualities, in 
some form or other. A moderate way of speaking to 
children, is equally impressive from the beginning, as 
any more rousing noises, to convey either commands, 
threats, caution, or advice. And slow deliberate mo- 
tions are niore solemnly impressive than rash unplod- 
ded onsets: and what has f>e essence of dignity in- 

*19 



222 

spires dignity in inferior intelligences. We have 
extraregular appearances among the productions of na- 
ture ; and very young minds are sometimes irreproach- 
fully biassed by external influences ; which happens 
when their infant faculties are unguardedly abandon- 
ed to the perverting corruption of foreign example and 
the managery of disinterested servants, companions, 
neighbours, and strangers, which carries them aside 
the channel of reciprocation with the stock. But that 
there is something hereditary in the configuration and 
arrangement of the primordial particles of the animal 
fabric, a something which disposes to certain appe- 
tites, desires, habits of thinking, rather than to others, 
which original is the same in respect to the diseases of 
the mind, as the predisposing cause among physicians 
is to those of the body, is a general truth. I main- 
tain nevertheless that there is nothing of this sort 
which it is not possible to overrule. In reference to 
this predisposing aptitude, we observe one has a strong 
mind ; which we should be cautious of setting into a 
wrong course, as it is not easily turned back. Another 
has a weak, susceptible and pliant mind, in whom we 
need be scrupulous of inducing a habit of levity. 
Another seems prone to part : iUar sorts of extrava- 
gance in passion, or to excess err ''pleasure : — and these 
we must be cautious of exposing to what nourishes 
the seeds of their disorders, and keep a guard over 
these weak parts of the soul. 

6. By pathetic communication. Discourses which 
awaken the tender passions, pity, love, sorrow, com- 
punction, are powerfully adapted to calm the minds 
of the young. These should be of proper length ; not 
so short as not to fix the attention, nor so long as to 
tire it out: and the subjects should conspicuously con- 
cern the actions of free agents. These things improve 
sympathy. The mind listens calmly to what interests 
its feelings. Parents would do well to talk patheti- 



223 

cally to their children about the cares and pains their- 
selves have undergone in sustaining them, and point 
out the only things which can afford them a satisfac- 
tory reward ; to exhibit in affecting colours the many 
heartaches, fears, sorrows, restless nights and laborious 
days, in which nothing stayed them but the hope of 
seeing their children one day virtuous and honorable 
members of society, fixes deep the principle of grat- 
itude, and by accustoming compunctious emotions, ex- 
alts, refines and ennobles sympathy with them, while 
it lulls the festering passions into peace, and opens 
trains of serene reflection. The violent passions, an- 
ger, hatred, desire, pride, ambition, &c. we should med- 
dle as little as possible with, and no farther move them 
than by evolving the contrasts of their proper objects 
they may be useful towards resolving the energy of 
the system to the principles of active virtue. The 
same thing is done by exciting admiration, astonish- 
ment, and their kindred emotions. Hence those ora- 
tions and poems which exhibit sublime objects, such as 
the great works of nature and the aspiring operations 
of heroes, hold the hearer in profound auscultation. 
And such a posture of mind can be made habitual by 
repetition, as well as any posture or action of the body. 
Books serve the same end, to those who can read and 
understand elevated themes. This induces a habit of 
reflection. 

f> Silence is very useful towards the end I am 
speaking of. Silence, by which I mean the privation 
of hard unnecessary sounds, has a natural tendency 
to compose the mind, by precluding all those vagaries 
of passion and imagination, which owe their rise to the 
continual irritation from those things which in the tu- 
mult of corrupt usages convey the ideas of provocation. 
There is no where any thing that affords a more amia- 
ble example of this mean than what we observe in the 
religious meetings- of the friends or quakers, and with 



224 

very hnppy effects too, although these may in some in- 
stances be defeated by carelessness at home ; for dwel- 
lings should be kept calm and regular as well as 
churches. A man's family is his school, and a tutor's 
school is his family : and both the one and the other 
should be tranquil, in order to take full impressions 
from the application of what is designed to promote 
the end of all good seminaries. 

8. Frequenting assemblies of strangers. The next 
thing to the recess of violent noises, one of those things 
that operate very favourably towards the end we are 
here speaking ot advancing, (especially in young peo- 
ple) is the changing of the scene of perceptions by a 
transition from the company of intimates to companies 
of strangers: which induces a degree of awe to the 
young; forcing the mind sometimes to intentional re- 
flection ; which were otherwise the sport of incidents 
by the ascendancy of common associations. This is 
approximated by the usage of the quakers, who bring 
their children into all their public meetings; which, in 
this view, is the most judicious measure in their dis- 
cipline; for it tends to acquaint them with the esta- 
blished ways and habits of their parents, their car- 
riage in public life, and the laws that govern their so- 
ciety, at the same time that it takes their minds from 
the common work-day round of vanity, while it calms 
and awes with the prospect of things serious. Mature 
persons feel these effects in travelling whereby they 
are brought into assemblies of strangers and into 
plights they are unused to. To investigate the parti- 
cular causation of this whether the absence of the 
constant accompaniments of their boldness in the used 
acts of their power, deprives them of the power itself to 
act and think as in familiarity they are wont, or the 
novelty of the objects of perception attracts and con- 
fines their attention more than any other, and so ab- 
sorbs the energy of the voluntary power, I shall not 



223 

say ) it sufficing we at least perceive that it is so ; and 
there is scarcely any body who has not observed this 
effect in himself, or who when he comes into large as- 
semblies of worshippers or others or indeed into the 
company of any number of strangers in a novel place, 
does not feel somewhat of awe or impression of the 
idea of some manner of ascendant power over him, 
which is greater in proportion as these strangers 5 man- 
ners and discourse deviate from his own, or those of 
his intimates. Now this impression secondarily pro- 
motes placida et quieta constantia. And here I would 
take occasion to recommend the discipline of young 
persons to frequenting assemblies of strangers who 
are their superiors, in such instances as are governed 
by strict order, still being so far kept within their lead- 
ing strings as not to run under the controul of cor- 
rupting appearances; and with the like qualification, 
early excursions into distinct neighborhoods. 

9. Some sorts of music are propitious to the fur- 
therance of this design Music which is pathetic, is 
remarkable, in several instances, for a composing ten- 
dency. The mood best adapted is to be determined 
by the sort of passion that prevails, to the want of 
tranquility. The lydian mood is best in some cases, 
and the ionion serves the purpose in others. The case 
wherein the lydian mood prevails, is that of animosity 
and rage that revert the course of sympathy ;~ which, 
evolving ideas of distress, excites pity, and pity be- 
ing adverse to those emotions of hatred and antipathy 
in which are grounded the purposes of revenge and 
cruelty, subdues them. The doric mood serves in the 
case of a festinate motion of the spirits, when an un- 
due degree of voluntary energy is collected in the 
system, producing restlessness and rashness. It like- 
wise serves sometimes to tune the thoughts to abstract 
reflection. Ionion is favorable only in cases where 
grief, sorrow, regret, or compunction, is in the excess 



226 

that verges to the irregularities of atrabUariousness : 
where on the one hand is no danger of incurrii g greater 
irregularity than what does prevail, and on the other, 
no hope of inducing perfect serenity; but, by a chime 
to superinduce a measure of uniformity, to which end 
the pleasure that attends the melody serves sometimes 
to allure, is the most we can calculate upon in this re - 
sort, where if we can only produce a fixed circle of ac- 
tion and intercept the progress to derangement, we 
need expect no better achievements. Even the Phry- 
gian mood is serviceable in this way sometimes in case 
of that agitation which arises from the doubtfulness or 
difficulty of any subject the mind has been exercised 
about, or from a lack of confidence as in the presence 
or approach of others with whom there is no intimacy, 
or equality of conversation. There are several sorts 
of sound which nature herself seems to have accorded 
to certain emotions and certain degrees of movement 
in the human system, and given them a tranquillizing 
quality : such as the hum of bees, the purling of 
brooks, distant fall of waters, murmur of winds in a 
forest, dashing of waves upon a shore, which have na- 
turally a soothing power and accelerate sleep. These, 
independently of custom, seem to have such a com- 
posing effect. Whether it be that the sensorium is 
fitted to imitate the motions of inanimate beings, which 
in these instances being equable and even, produce the 
like in ourselves by a kind of physical sympathy, or 
that the perceptions of these monotonies supersede the 
agitations arising from excessive passions, is a question 
in physiology which of however curious matter of spe- 
culation, I shall not here meddle with. The effects 
however being acknowledged on all hands, suggest the 
propriety of situating a seminary in a rural retreat 
where such sorts of oumls (if any) commonly prevail. 
10 8tr'a,us r&jlectiam,: abstract speculation. By 
voluntarily fixing the energy of their mind upon the 



3S7 

consideration of momentous concerns, men make them- 
selves tranquil ; especially if these concerns be made 
of abstract ideas. This- is a thing by which mature 
persons bring about this frame (which in another view 
is the cause of it,) when we consider habits of contem- 
plation and meditation with their eventual preeminen- 
ces, as results of the proper uses of such a posture of 
the soul, which thus can be recovered and quiet tempo- 
rarily induced upon the tumult of undue agitations of 
mind by men making use of their voluntary ascen- 
dancy they have got by habit, in resolutely turning 
their thoughts to deliberate and abstract trains in spite 
of the obtrusive interference of inticing or commoving 
irritation, I have hitherto considered this placid tem- 
perament as a medium in and by which we were to 
rise to habits of voluntary thinking, and accumulation 
of knowledge, with the advantages they bring us ; and 
a? a sort of stage on which only we could act advanta- 
geously in such expeditions. And in this view it is 
necessary to superinduce it to the young by mechanical 
helps ; it being accessible to them no other way. It 
being a mean to the advantages of mental ascendancy 
and assecution, it is evident these cannot reach it by 
means of that which they have not got. For it is con- 
sidered the groundwork of all solid attainments and 
all improvements that depend on voluntary thinking : 
as an institutionary preliminary, and preparatory re- 
quisite indispensable to proficiency in intellectual ex- 
cellence : without some !degree of this there being n© 
such thing as fixed attention to anyone serious design, 
sufficient to imprint any valuable maxim in the mem- 
ory. This, in fact, I think consitutes gre^t part of 
the essence of the highest degree of liberty we are 
competent to, freedom of intellectual operations. But 
I am now considering it as a desideratum valu'd ia 
rapport to another end, to be pursued by the interme- 
diacy of that which was (at first) its object; to which, 



223 

intent reflection gives cultivated intelligences a direct 
pass. And here it is principally valued as an essen- 
tial of the greatest good. For 1 think it is necessary 
to the greatest happiness we are capable of; for if our 
greatest happiness consisted of nothing more than 
what brutes are susceptible of and makes their chief 
enjoyment, our superior faculties were a disadvan- 
tage to us instead of an advantage ; for those facul- 
ties certainly interfere with that ^rt of happiness. 

Now no body I presume will deny that men have so 
tar a voluntary ascendancy over their thoughts that 
they can select certain ideas or sorts of ideas which 
they will examine on all sides, and consider in all their 
relations, which out of choice pursuing in train, ex- 
clude all others from their particular attention, and 
hold these in view for a considerable time together. 
And abstract speculation tends to make permanent and 
habitual this calm ; this tempered movement of the 
system : one obvious reason whereof is, abstract ideas 
imply a slower movement than particular ones. 

These are some of the principal causes of placida 
et quieta constantia, and the most likely measures I 
can think of, to accelerate this auspicions state of the 
human system. To work these expedients into the 
regulation of a school so far as they are applicable, is 
an advantage obvious to all judicious supervisors. 
From what has been said it is evident that to approxi- 
mate the substantiation of the principle we have been 
speaking of, should be the immediate design of all 
school government. In the present state of human 
manners, in the ordinary course of things teachers can 
do little more than approximate towards it, and any 
tiling that serves best to do tliis, and carries us the 
nearest to this point, is accordingly estimable as an 
expedient of school government Quiet is at least 
necessary: in order to this, silence; to th.s, regularity ; 
and to the whole, proper situation and structure of the 



229 

material part of the seminary, are ot invariable con- 
sequence. 

Writing, or penmanship, is a mechanic art which 
is taught in this sort of seminaries; the principal 
secret whereof consists in the association of a certain 
posture and pressure of the fingers and thumb (in 
grasping a pen or pencil) with a certain motion of 
the muscles of those fingers and of the arm. The 
primordials of this may be secured in infancy. 

Thirdly. Private schools kept by jobbers in the 
occupation whether at their own dwellings or those of 
others, or situated upon the f enancy of buildings de- 
signed for such institutes, wherein the pupils are taught 
for a stated price per head, the greater number whereof 
the instructor can get, the more permanent is the in- 
stitution of this sort and the more excitement he has 
to enter heartily into the study of the means of im- 
provement, altho* in the laws that provide for their 
maintenance they are not subject to the capricious 
distributions of public funds, yet in their internal re- 
gulations have many abuses, and the same remarks may 
be applied to them, in general, as other schools. There 
can be no permanency to this sort of schools but in an 
estate belonging to the teacher. If the teacher have 
an independent fortune, and is disposed to maintain 
and keep open a seminary of this sort under some 
favorite arrangements, it is a permanent and a valuable 
school so long as he lives and keeps in the same mind ; 
and whenever it does take place, has utility too; for 
no one would have pleasure in keeping a seminary 
open upon such grounds, but one who understood edu- 
cation, and being skilled in the means to make his work 
agreeable, and effectual, could render it also a -public 
benefit to the society he was connected with. Other- 
wise, the existence of the school (of this sort) depends 
so immediately upon the variable humours, whims, and 
conceits of the participators of it, that it must be very 
precarious; and there is less dependance on it than 

20 



230 

(if possible) on public schools. Yet some prefer this 
sort of schools to other, upon the assumption that the 
teacher is more * faithful' where he is paid according 
to his number: but there is little hope of faithfulness 
where it has no determinate character; where faith- 
fulness, being but temporizing to customers' liking, 
each of whom has a separate theory, may be every 
thing and nothing, and in propriety can scarcely be any 
thing more than faithfulness to one. 

Fourthly. I come now to consider another kind of 
institute, called a religious establishment; which im- 
plies all those modes, substances, relations, and com- 
binations of them, which are fixed by the concurrent 
consent of collections of mankind to be the direct 
medium for expressing the persuasion of supernatural 
efficiency, and for exemplifying those modes which 
come under the terms worship and devotion. A reli- 
gious establishment is a sort of institute which was 
originally applied simply to a purpose of devotion ; 
but which has, in process of the corrupt operations of 
ill- formed characters and misguided societies, been 
worked into a very different appropriation, to promote 
the ends of ambition, such as monopoly, usurpation, 
dominion, eclat, and the like ; and is now verj com- 
monly reckoned an expedient of great subservience to 
education. In this I comprehend all the means and 
modes of those exercises called devotional, ai d used 
in address and reference to the consciousness of invi- 
sible agents. Some reflecting; men consider this thin": 
a recourse of important instrumentality to right edu- 
cation ; and deem it a potent auxiliary to the meliora- 
tion of the moral characters of men. In religious es- 
tablishments are these four things to be considered ; 
creed, apparatus, ceremony and discipline* The whole 
subject of a religious establishment is constituted of 
these elements; — things to believe; things to do; 
things to do with ; and tilings to define and determine 



231 

what is to do, which are those rules, orders, and pre- 
scripts to which what is done is to be conformed, and 
by which all the regulations of an establishment are 
to be governed. Every religious establishment, then, 
is reducible to four parts: 

I. Creed, or things to be believed ; which are either 
hypothetical propositions, that are objects of superna- 
tural faith; or mere historical matters of probability: 
since science belongs to what results from the regular 
application of our natural faculties, and is common to 
all societies, and the resort of ail establishments with- 
out discrimination. This part governs the others. 
Their creed modifies the ceremony, apparatus, and 
discipline, of all sects. 

II. Apparatus: such as churches, chapels, taberna- 
cles, synagogues, altars, organs, hymns, music-books, 
service books, oracles, symbols, idols, ike, Every es- 
tablishment has some house or station, to perform its 
instituted operations in; and use is made of a great 
variety of implements, of artificial modification, to 
execute the purposes ot ceremony and discipline. 

III. Ceremony: which is any manner of acting, or 
sort of action, which is reckoned essential to fulfil the 
design of the institute, and complete the characters of 
members. 

IV. Discipline; or the rules and measures of the 
internal regulations, by which the conduct of each 
member of a society of such sort is guided, officers 
and ranks appointed, and the business of the society 
squared; as the conditions and preliminaries toad- 
mission of members, installation and expulsion of 
ministers, and whatever else governs and limits the 
ceremonies used by the society. 

Every one of these parts is varied -in different etsa- 
blishments according to the creed of each corporation 
and each sect. 



232 

The original of this institute I suppose to be the idea 
of supernatural efficiency : while the rude children 
of nature, anterior to civilization, I imagine derived 
their first notions of worship from awe of powerful 
men who held in their disposal the prevailing goods 
and evils of their inferiors. It seems probable that 
their first devices of penance and homage were sug 
gested by their dread of superior beings who were 
known or believed to be volitive causes of sufferance 
to them. 

Men not comprehending the beginning and opera- 
tions of causes, were persuaded that sundry pheno- 
mena they did not understand, were produced by in- 
visible beings which (they considering intelligence 
v/niuii {hay f-ur.d inhuman adversaries to be the inse- 
parable concomitant of superior causes which predo- 
minated in their fate) being supposed intelligent and 
volitive, were thought to understand their requests not 
only, but to be susceptible of persuasion, and apprized 
of desires, fears, aversions, and pains, in their peti- 
tioners, of being moved like human tyrants. Whence 
they fancied because enraged tyrants could be pacified 
and determined by ilatteries, gifts, prayers, &c. that 
those powerful beings who directed the secret opera- 
tions of the universe, were susceptible of like impres- 
sions. Hence the ancients had their Jupiter the thun- 
derer; and several operations of nature, as well as 
material elements, had their supervising divinities, — 
as Eolus the God of wind, Neptune the God of the 
sea, Vertumnus the God of spring, Eos the God of the 
morning. Thus several visible objects which were 
used to excite fear or admiration they came to worship, 
as thinking because infuriate tyrants were sometimes 
appeased and wrought into clemency by adulation and 
entreaty, that therefore all other superior agents might 
also be affected by like applications. Crafty men 
made a matter of questuary speculation of the imbe- 



233 

cility and credulity of their fellow mortals : kings saw 
in it a great adminicle to their views of dominion and 
aggrandizement. Afterwards they found it necessary, 
in order to support their pre-eminence, to keep the 
common people in ignorance and delusion ; and these 
are the ostriches which have hatch 'd superstition and 
fanaticism into the world. For, to make people sub- 
mit tamely to the terms of slavery, and have what na- 
ture has endowed all rational creatures with, trampled 
over or made matter of trade to upstarts, it is neces- 
sary (o manacle their intellectual parts, as wagoners 
are fain to blindfold their horses in harvest. 

Several sober men in all ages and nations, have been 
seriously impressed with an opinion that this kind of 
institute is calculated to make men better: and others 
have considered it an indispensable part of those deli- 
beratia oportare, in a well-order'd community, whose 
scope is the acceleration of the end of human educa- 
tion ; which is the consummation of enjoyment. In 
proportion as any instituted mode points more or less 
directly towards this great end, it is to be estimated 
important or unimportant for mankind to accustom. 
This consummation of enjoyment, which is the last 
end of education, being the finishing of human nature 
in this sense that it is that in which all its perfections 
terminate, what tends to the advancement of this, must 
be something that improves human nature. Therefore 
education is an amelioration of human nature. Now 
God having designed man for a social being, endued 
him with sympathy, whereby it becomes impossible for 
him to be perfectly happy in the presence of those he 
makes miserable. On the improvement of sympathy, 
rests social happiness. To improve sympathy, is to 
reflect on the feelings of others and to practically as- 
sociate the consideration of those feelings with that 
of every part of our conduct by which those feelings 
are probably affected. Sympathy improved, tend.* into 

*S0 



234 

all those forms of moral good that under the general 
term social virtue, are called justice, charity, hospi- 
tality, meekness, gratitude, &c. wherein regarding the 
feelings of others as our own, we interestedly go to 
promote the good of others, which in effect becomes 
the general good ; which when sincerely advanced 
from natural principles, must approximate the highest 
degree of perfection the enjoyment of human beings 
is susceptible of. For sociality being a radical part of 
human nature, such enjoyment must partake of reci- 
procity. The utmost degree of improvement the 
powers and parts of the human system are capable of, 
seems to me to be the perfection of social virtue. So- 
cial virtue is the chief end of man in this state of ex- 
istence. That for which any system was made, its 
freatest improvement must consist in what tends to 
ring forward ; and vice versa. Whatever process 
tends to bring forward this state of improvement of 
the moral and intellectual powers of man, i. e. the 
greatest sublimity and facility of operation in the pur- 
suit of that which is the ultimatum of all improve- 
ments, perfection of enjoyment, is essential to true 
education. In proportion as any mean adjuvates the 
purpose of education by subserving the acceleration of 
its goal or ultimate object, the same is estimable as a 
mean: consequently, that which by an interrupted or 
indirect aid contributes to moral improvement, is bet- 
ter than what affords no influence at all, favorabie to- 
wards this end. And therefore those corrupt systems 
which in their projection having had prevailing refer- 
ence to this end, are in their operations adventitiously 
propitious to the suppression of vice and to the inuring 
of reflection, and, by dint of prescription, work as in- 
dispensable to the keeping of good order in a commu- 
nity, are better to be retained, than exploded without 
substitutes that are better fitted to promote the same 
good. And upon this principle I think it is that the 



233 

rash plan of subverting the authority of venerated 
pandects of religious tenets, has been universally dis- 
commended by the stable and considerate. Hence 
Paine, Hume, FTobbs, Spinoza, and others, have been 
regarded as common enemies of mankind, because la 
their running down and bringing into contempt inured 
systems, they seem'd not to have principally in view 
to substitute any thing better in the room of them. 
Which, since many of those who disapprove these, 
were sensible of great errors in those systems they at- 
tacked, seems to me a proof that they are generally 
valu'd for their indirect aid to the cause of virtue ; 
which is inured in the want of something more direct. 
Which to ine evinces that moral goodness is that which 
all men are prone to value mankind by, finally ; and 
to rate all moral institutes by their subserviency to it ; 
which subserviency is tlieir conscientious criterion of 
such institutes. And 1 think it is a very considerable 
argument for the existence of a principle of goodness 
in human nature, when we find the common people 
(when pressed) pin their whole estimate of every system 
of faith and ceremony, upon that which they are per- 
suaded has a greater or less bearing towards benefi- 
cience, and that the most zealous sticklers for such 
system, have at last no other argument they presume 
to place reliance upon in their vindication, than that 
it is favorable some way or other to the cause of vir- 
tue ; which argument they have, in extremity, full 
confidence in. 

I think it affords a pleasing reflection on human na- 
ture, to perceive that it has, originally, more satisfac- 
tion in a conformity, in action, to the design of nature, 
and in what produces that conformity, than in any 
adverse view. For what is it but that men generally 
are in heart attached to the cause of moral virtue, 
when the subserviency to this, is the last refuge that 
any system of religion can find, when examined in 



23G 

the scales ut ratiocination ? No sentiment is more 
receptory than that any thing is valuable in proportion 
to its use or serviceable ness to any end. This mea- 
sure of estimation obtains the controul of our opin- 
ions of all other things, and ought to prevail equally 
in matters of religion. Yet the arts of tyranny cir- 
cumscribe the rigid adherence to this measure of esti- 
mation among the common people, so that it take* 
place only of the debates of prejudiced adversarie 
when asector thesis being at tacked argumentatively it 
presently comes into vogue because no other test will 
hold way with ratiocination. Shakespeare says there 
is some soul of goodness in things evil, would men ob- 
servingly distil it out : and there is scarce any thing 
in the world that may not, in some point of view, be 
traced into an efficient connection with good as well 
as evil. There is scarcely a conditionary scheme of 
moral modes in the civilized world that is not in some 
place or condition, time or relation, resolved into a 
cause of gocd, and even of moral good. In man him- 
self is some soul of goodness, whereby any system of 
faith and worship ever comes to be rated by its con- 
duciveness to real virtue: and this is conscience, or 
the c moral sense.' And there is not a more ingenuous 
exemplification of this t soul of goodness- than in the 
upholding of an antiquated and burdensome ritual, 
for no other reason but a persuasion of its apt- 
ness to serve the end of moral instruction, either pos- 
sitively, as conveying such instruction, or negatively 
by standing in the way of its opposite and keeping 
people out of evil ;— which has place when a custom 
cannot be at once exploded by one man which is com- 
mon to many, and when the cassation of it would be 
the ascendancy of depravity because there supervenes 
no feasible substitute more directly subsidiary to the 
value'd end. A blind cripple being suddenly restored, 
requires direction and discipline, to acquire the art of 



237 

walking: and if the cause of morality has ever sa 
blind and blundering guides, they are better than no 
guides at all (if we suppose these to be its whole visi- 
ble support and all it has to keep it from subsiding into 
insignificance or finally verging to utter ruin ;) and if 
we bluntly take away such things as men use to ap- 
proximate an end, without instating in their room 
something else which answers the purpose better than 
these which derive much of their prevailing influence 
from their associations with the common pleasures of 
life, we straightly put the attainment of that end at utter 
hazard. For whatever in the human system embraces 
the most extensive spliere of ideal connection, is most 
efficient as a principle of action. What is associated 
with the greatest number of different ideas and move- 
ments, must have a chance to operate most frequently 
as an incitement or discouragement in respect to cer- 
tain actions in our power, whicb tend to secure certain 
goods or avert certain evils. I would not be under- 
stood to speak exclusively of that which ought to be 
reputed real good or evil, but of that, generally, which 
is made so by habit. And the greater variety of points 
of connection I say, of this sort, any system has ac- 
quired, the greater prevalence it has, and the higher 
estimate. 

This kind of institute seems to be of a nature that 
is not adapted to facilitate the extension of knowledge ; 
and its operation to induce, refine, and appropriate 
habits of virtuous speculations and actions, is not the 
most direct and expeditious that may be. That it 
does operate somewhere towards the desired end, is 
not denied ;- all we can say is, the use of it is not 
immediate, but catachrestical, by remote causes and 
fortuitous associations. Yet it is thought by many 
serious and well meaning persons, to'be essential to the 
means of finishing education. Now education being but 
to form and adjust associations of ideas in the infant 



238 

taind ; to open physical knowledge of things ; to con- 
duct the tonic organs to proper articulation ; to estab- 
lish such associate movements of the muscular organs 
by habit as are necessary to subsistence ; and to form 
habits of voluntary action conformable to purposes of 
social* virtue ; it will be no frivolous consideration to 
inquire how far this institute will naturally serve to 
advance either of these parts of the work : in do- 
ing which, it will be most convenient to examine every 
part of an establishment separately, in this respect ; 
and consider each of these in application to the several 
stages of education* -After which it will be proper to 
inquire whether there be any way to render this thing 
more beneficial, by any improvements upon the com- 
mon ways of employing it. 

First, then, how far does that part of religious 
establishment I have called creed, operate towards the 
furtherance of human education? Or in other words, 
what improvement comes from this quarter, that tends 
to insure or accelerate the true end of this business ? 
1st. With regard to the fashioning of associations in 
the system, which is the first step of the process of 
forming character, I don't see that we can come at any 
important bearing of this hereon, unless we consider 
opinions in a different point of view than merely as 
objects of assent, and, unravelling the relations of the 
ideas whereof the opinions consist, examine the habi- 
tudes these have with progressive association, and of 
course the share of efficiency the one may have over 
the other. Now the creeds of various sects are so di- 
vers and complicate that to recapitulate ever so brief- 
ly what history exemplifies of this sort of description, 
would be to make a volume; wherefore it is necessary 
in this place to concentrate our investigation in those 
specimens, of most influence and notoriety. Some 
associations are arbitrary ; and some natural. Some 
things are found to co exist in rerum natura, and 



289 

others casually coalesce in the flow of our imagina 
tions; while there are others which we voluntarily 
put together, and institute their connection for certain 
purposes. And the forming of associations, susceptive 
to the province of education, is nothing more nor less 
than making some ideas and movements apt to appear 
together or follow one another rather than others. 
The influence the subjects of opinions concerning for- 
eign existences, are capable to command, in direct 
causality, on this part of the work of education, does 
not take place very early in life. A bias from thisquar* 
ter does not take place very early on the associations of 
children, any otherwise than by secondary occasion, in 
the manner supervizors are hereby used to manage 
them. \Vhenever children understanding the terms 
used to represent the subjects of those opinions, 
are capable of comprehending them, which may yet be 
before they have the kiiack of investigating their 
grounds, weighing probabilities, and judging of truth 
arid falsehood, their practical associations (I mean 
such as are likely to «five effect to motives, and turn 
to actions) are obviously liable to be biassed by them. 
e. g. What effect shall we expect the opinion of the 
Mahometan " that the prophet in a nocturnal visit to the 
Empyrean, and subsequent communications of the 
angel Gabriel, collected the alcoran," or of the papist 
"that the uttering of certain wort's and acting of cer- 
tain motions, by a priest, has the efi'ect to change the 
very nature of a substance and convert bread into 
flesh, wine into blood, &c," to have upon the associations 
of a young mind, but, superinducing ideas that are 
aside from the natural course and consistency of things, 
to nonplus the efficiency of its best principles of ac- 
tion, such as sympathy and reason, which they con- 
troul, much to the prejudice of phiianthrophy ? And 
herein we see what makes mystical opinions pernicious 
is rommtic id$as L which have been heretofore noticed 



210 

toliave a depraving tendency upon the understand- 
ings of social agents, by bearing aside the energy of 
the moral powers from the natural establishment of 
human enjoyment. For if happiness be associated 
with things which we see no where connected in na- 
ture, and the means of it placed without the compass 
of human possibility, how shall we form upon this prin- 
ciple a system of moral conduct adapted to our real 
condition r Chimerical ideas are baneful to the mo- 
rals of youth. -And for this reason I think that of 
those opinions of foreign existence which may be 
reckoned true, the abstruse part should not be let into 
the notice of the young. Those opinions which con- 
tain mystical and incomprehensible things, should 
not be let into the notice of the young very early. 
To accustom the understanding to fantastical ideas, 
is to pervert the understanding. Understanding be- 
ing given man to preserve him and direct him to hap- 
piness, should evidently, for the advancement of these 
purposes, be concerned with the ideas of those things 
which are capacitated to comfort or trouble, preserve 
or destroy him, rather than with what has no discover- 
able connection with those causes adapted to effect us 
in these ways. Now to use the understanding to ideas 
different from what it was designed for, is perverting 
it : and to connect supernatural ideas (if there be any 
such) with natural ones; to introduce supernatural 
ideas into the scene of natural connections with what 
we by sensation and reflection find ourselves here en- 
vironed by, and subject to the operation of, with the 
presumplion to form any system of conduct thereby, 
is like putting an institute of geometry into the hands 
of a child who yet has learn'd no more of mathematics 
than to name and count the nine elementary numbers. 
Supernatural will no more consist with natural ideas, 
to constitute the same system for the guide of a finite 
being, than a crane will serve for a pilot to a fleet. 



229 



material part of the seminary, are ot invariable am 
sequence. 

• Writing, or penmanship, is a mechanic art which 
>s taught in this sort of seminaries; the principal 
secret whereof consists in the association of a certain 
posture and pressure of the fingers and thumb fin 
graspmg a pen or pencil) with! certain motionV 
the muscles of those fingers and of the arm Tho 
pnmordials of this may be secured in infancy. ' 

Ih.rdly. Private schools kept by jobbers in the 
occupation whether at their own dwellings ortho-e of 
others, or situated upon the tenancy oflniildm^ de- 
signed for such institutes, wherein the pupils are tauSt 
for a stated price per head, the greaterUmbe S 
the instructor can get, the more permanent is the in 
st.tut.on of this sort and the more excitement he I as 
to enter heartily into the study of the means of m 
provement,aItho' in the laws that provide for the 
ma,ne nance they are not gubj J U%£^, 

distributions of public funds, 3 J et in their infeS?/ 
gulat.ons have many abuses, and the same remarks m a v 
be anpl.ed to them, ,n general, as other schools 'f£ 
can be no permanency to this sort of schools h.riwT 
estate belonging to 4 teacher. If £ toctr K 
an independent fortune, and is disposed to main tab! 
and keep open a seminary of this sort under some 
favorite arrangements, it is a permanent and a valuable 
school so long as he lives and keeps in the same S^ 
and whenever ,t does take place, has utilitfw fr/ 
no one would have pleasure^ in keepin. a sernVna^v 
open upon such grounds, but one who understood efl , J 
cation and be ng skilled in the means to maTe hi Two l" 
agreeable, and effectual, could render if So . „nW- 
benefit to the society he was connected wit, ° $£? 
wise, the existence of the school (of this sort iUrZ I ' 
so immediately upon the variable Inn ^£^| 
concei sof the participators of it, that it n list h 
precanous; and thesis less depeiidaLe ol 'l S 
20 



230 

fif possible) on public schools. Yet some prefer this 
sort of schools to other, upon the assumption that the 
teacher is more ' faithful' where lie is paid according 
to his number: but there is little hope of faithfulness 
where it has no determinate character ; where faith- 
fulness, being but temporizing to customers 5 liking, 
each of whom has a separate theory may be every 
thing and nothing, and in propriety can scarcely be any 
tiling more than faithfulness to one. 

Fourthly. I come now to consider another kind of 
institute, called a religious establishment; which im- 
plies all those modes, substances, relations, and com- 
binations of them, which are fixed by the concurrent 
consent of collections of mankind to be the direct 
medium for expressing the persuasion of supernatural 
efficiency, and for exemplifying those modes which 
come under the terms worship and devotion. A reli- 
gious establishment is a sort of institute which was 
originally applied simply to a purpose of devotion ; 
but which has, in process of the corrupt operations of 
ill-formed characters and misguided societies, been 
worked into a very different appropriation, to promote 
the ends of ambition, such as monopoly, usurpation, 
dominion, eclat, and the like ; and is now very com- 
monly reckoned an expedient of gre it subservience to 
education. In this 1 comprehend all the means and 
modes of those exercises called devotional, and used 
in address and reference to the consciousness of invi- 
sible agents. Some reflecting men consider this thing 
a recourse of important instrumentality to right edu- 
cation ; and deem it a potent auxiliary to the meliora- 
tion of the moral characters of men. In religious es- 
tablishments are these four things to be considered ; 
treed, apparatus, ceremony and discipline. The whole 
subject of a religious establishment is constituted of 
these element^; — things to believe; things to do 
things to do with : and things to define and detenniiu 



£31 

what is to do, which are those rules, orders, and pre- 
scripts to which what is done is to he conformed, and 
by which all the regulations of an establishment are 
to be governed. Every religious establishment, then, 
is reducible to four parts : 

I. Creed, or things to be believed ; which are either 
hypothetical propositions, that are objects of superna- 
tural faith; or mere historical matters of probability: 
since science belongs to what results from the regular 
application of our natural faculties, ami is common to 
all societies, and the resort of all establishments with- 
out discrimination. This part governs the others. 
Their creed modifies the ceremony, apparatus, and 
discipline, of all sects. 

II. Apparatus: such as churches, chapels, taberna- 
cles, synagogues, altars, organs, hymns, music-books, 
service books, oracles, symbols, idols, ike, ft very es- 
tablishment has some house or station, to perform its 
instituted operations in; and use is made of a great 
variety of implements, of artificial modification, to 
execute the purposes ot ceremony and discipline. 

III. Ceremony: which is any manner of acting, or 
sort of action, which is reckoned essential to fulfil the 
design of the institute, and complete the diameters of 
members. 

IV. Discipline; or the rules and measures of tin? 
internal regulations, by which i}\Q conduct of each 
member of a society of such sort is guided, officers 
and ranks appointed, and the business of the society 
squared; as the conditions and preliminaries to ad- 
mission of members, installation and expulsion of 
ministers, and whatever else governs and limits the 
ceremonies used by the society. 

Every one of these parts is varied in different etsa- 
blishments according to the creed of each corporation 
and each sect. 



232 

The original of this institute I suppose to be the idea 
of supernatural efficiency: while the rude children 
of nature, anterior to civilization, I imagine derived 
their first notions of worship from awe of powerful 
men who held in their disposal 1he prevailing goods 
and evils of their inferiors. It seems probable that 
their first devices of penance and homage were sug 
gested by their dread of superior beings who were 
known or believed to be volitive causes of sufferance 
to them 

Men not comprehending the beginning and opera- 
tions of causes, were persuaded that sundry pheno- 
mena they did not understand, were produced by in- 
visible beings which (they considering intelligence 
which they found in human adversaries to be the inse- 
parable concomitant of superior causes which predo- 
minated in their fate) being supposed intelligent and 
volitive, were thought to understand their requests not 
only, but to be susceptible of persuasion, and apprized 
of desires, fears, aversions, and pains, in their peti- 
tioners, of being moved like human tyrants. Whence 
they fancied because enraged tyrants could be pacified 
and determined by flatteries, gifts, prayers, &c. that 
those powerful beings who directed the secret opera- 
tions of the universe, were susceptible of like impres- 
sions. Hence the ancients had their Jupiter the thun- 
dercr; and several operations of nature, as well as 
material elements, had their supervising divinities, — 
as Eolus the God of wind, Neptune the God of the 
sea, Vertumnus the God of spring, Eos the God of the 
morning. Thus several visible objects which were 
used to excite fear or admiration they came to worship, 
as thinking because infuriate tyrants were sometimes 
appeased and wrought into clemency by adulation and 
entreaty, that therefore all other superior agents might 
also be affected by like applications. Crafty men 
made a matter of qu estuary speculation of the imbo 



§33 

cility and credulity of their fellow mortals: kings saw 
in it a great adminicle to their views of dominion and 
aggrandizement. Afterwards they found it necessary, 
in order to support their pre-eminence, to keep the 
common people in ignorance and delusion ; and these 
are the ostriches which have hatch M superstition and 
fanaticism into the world. For, to make people sub- 
mit tamely to the terms of slavery, and have what na- 
ture has endowed all rational creatures with, trampled 
over or made matter of trade to upstarts, it is neces- 
sary to manacle their intellectual parts, as wagoners 
are fain to blindfold their horses in harvest. 

Several sober men in all ages and nations, have been 
seriously impressed with an opinion that this kind of 
institute is calculated to make men better: and others 
have considered it an indispensable part of those deli- 
beratia oportare, in a well-order'd community, whose 
scope is the acceleration of the end of human educa- 
tion; which is the consummation of enjoyment. In 
proportion as any instituted mode points more or less 
directly towards this great end, it is to be estimated 
important or unimportant for mankind to accustom. 
This consummation of enjoyment, which is the last 
end of education, being the finishing of human nature 
in this sense that it is that in which all its perfections 
terminate, what tends to the advancement of this^ must 
be something that improves human nature. Therefore 
education is an amelioration of human nature. Now 
God having designed man for a social being, endued 
him with sympathy, whereby It becomes impossible for 
him to be perfectly happy in the presence of those he 
makes miserable. On the improvement of sympathy, 
rests social happiness. To improve sympathy, is to 
reflect on the feelings of others and to practically as- 
sociate the consideration of those feelings with that 
of every part of our conduct by which those feelings 
are probably affected. Sympathy improved, tends into 

*20 



234 

all those forms of moral good that under the general 
term social virtue, are called justice, charity, hospi- 
tality, meekness, gratitude, &c. wherein regarding the 
feelings of others as our own, we interestedly go to 
promote the good of others, which in effect becomes 
the general good; which when sincerely advanced 
from natural principles, must approximate the highest 
degree of perfection the enjoyment of human beings 
v is susceptible of. For sociality being a radical part of 
human nature, such enjoyment must partake of reci- 
procity. The utmost degree of improvement the 
powers and parts of the human system are capable of, 
seems to me to be the perfection of social virtue. So- 
cial virtue is the chief end of man in this state of ex* 
istence. That for which any system was made, its 
greatest improvement must consist in what tends to 
bring forward ; and vice versa. Whatever process 
tends to bring forward this state of improvement of 
the moral and intellectual powers of man, i. e. the 
greatest sublimity and facility of operation in the pur- 
suit of that which is the ultimatum of all improve- 
ments, perfection of enjoyment, is essential to true 
education. In proportion as any mean adjuvates the 
purpose of education by subserving the acceleration of 
its goal or ultimate object, the same is estimable as a 
mean : consequently, that which by an interrupted or 
indirect aid contributes to moral improvement, is bet- 
ter than what affords no influence at all, favorable to- 
wards this end. And therefore those corrupt systems 
which in their projection having had prevailing refer- 
ence to this end, are in their operations adventitiously 
propitious to the suppression of vice and to the inuring 
of reflection, and, by dint of prescription, work as in- 
dispensable to the keeping of good order in a commu- 
nity, are better to be retained, than exploded without 
substitutes that are better fitted to promote the same 
good. And upon this principle I think it is that tl e 



235 

rash plan of subverting the authority of venerated 
pandects of religious tenets, has been universally dis- 
commended by the stable and considerate. Hence 
Paine, Hume, Hobbs, Spinoza, and others, have been 
regarded as common enemies of mankind, because in 
their running down and bringing into contempt inured 
systems, they seem'd not to have principally in view 
to substitute any thing better in the room of them. 
Which, since many of those who disapprove these, 
were sensible of great errors in those systems they at- 
tacked, seems to me a proof that they are generally 
valu'd for their indirect aid to the cause of virtue ; 
which is inured in the want of something more direct. 
Which to me evinces that moral goodness is that which 
ill men are prone to value mankind by, finally; and 
to rate all moral institutes by their subserviency to it; 
which subserviency is their conscientious criterion of 
such institutes. And I think it is a very considerable 
irgument for the existence of a principle of goodness 
in human nature, when we find the common people 
(when pressed) pin their whole estimate of every system 
of faith and ceremony, upon that which they are per- 
suaded has a greater or less bearing towards benefi- 
cience, and that the most zealous sticklers for such 
system, have at last no other argument they presume 
to place reliance upon in their vindication, than that 
it is favorable some way or other to the cause of vir- 
tue ; which argument they have, in extremity, full 
confidence in. 

[ think it affords a pleasing reflection on human na- 
ture, to perceive that it has> originally, more satisfac- 
tion in a conformity, in action, to the design of nature, 
and in what produces that conformity, than in any 
adverse view, For what is it but that men generally 
are in heart attached to the cause of moral virtue, 
.when the subserviency to this, is the last refuge that 
any system of religion can find, when examined in 



23G 

the scales of ratiocination ? No sentiment is more 
receptory than that any thing is valnable in proportion 
to its use or serviceableness to any end. This mea- 
sure of estimation obtains the controul of our opin- 
ions of all other things, and ought to prevail equally 
in matters of religion. Yet the arts of tyranny cir- 
cumscribe the rigid adherence to this measure of esti- 
mation among the common people, so that it takes 
place only of the debates of prejudiced adversaries, 
when a sect or thesis beingattacked argumentatively it 
presently comes into vogue because no other test will 
hold way with ratiocination. Shakespeare says there 
is some soul of goodness in things evil, would men ob- 
servingly distil it out : and there is scarce any thing 
in the world that may not, in some point of view, be 
traced into an efficient connection with good as well 
as evil. There is scarcely a conditionaiy scheme of 
moral modes in the civilized world that is not in some 
place or condition, time or relation, resolved into a 
cause of good, and even of moral good. In man him- 
self is some soul of goodness, whereby any system of 
faith and worship ever comes to be rated by its con- 
duciveness to real virtue: and this is conscience, or 
the c moral sense.' And there is not a more ingenuous 
exemplification of this * soul of goodness' than in the 
upholding of an antiquated and burdensome ritual, 
for no other reason but a persuasion of its apt- 
ness to serve the end of moral instruction, either pos- 
sitively, as conveying such instruction, or negatively 
by standing in the way of its opposite and keeping 
people out of evil ; — which has place when a custom 
cannot be at once exploded by one man which is com- 
mon to manijy and when the cassation of it would be 
the ascendancy of depravity because there supervenes 
no feasible substitute more directly subsidiary to the 
value'd end. A blind cripple being suddenly restored, 
requires direction and discipline, to acquire the art of 



237 

walking: and ii the cause of morality has ever so 
blind and blundering guides, they are better than no 
guides at all (if we suppose these to be its whole visU 
ble support and all it has to keep it from subsiding into 
insignificance or finally verging to utter ruin ;) and if 
we bluntly take away such things as men use to ap- 
proximate an end, without instating in their room 
something else which answers the purpose better than 
these which derive much of their prevailing influence 
from their associations with the common pleasures of 
life, we straightly put the attainment of that end at utter 
hazard. For whatever in the human system embraces 
the most extensive sphere of ideal connection, is most 
efficient as a principle of action. What is associated 
with the greatest number of different ideas and move- 
ments, must have a chance to operate most frequently 
as an incitement or discouragement in respect to cer- 
tain actions in our power, which tend to secure certain 
goods or avert certain evils. I would not be under- 
stood to speak exclusively of that which ought to be 
reputed real good or evil, but of that, generally, which 
is made so by habit. And the greater variety of points 
of connection I say, of this sort, any system has ac- 
quired, the greater prevalence it has, and the higher 
estimate. 

This kind of institute seems to be of a nature that 
is not adapted to facilitate the extension of knowledge ; 
and its operation to induce, refine, and appropriate 
habits of virtuous speculations and actions, is not the 
most direct and expeditious that may be. That it 
does operate somewhere towards the desired end, is 
not denied ; — all we can say is, the use of it is not 
immediate, but catachresticai, by remote causes and 
fortuitous associations. Yet it is thought by many 
serious and well meaning persons, to'be essential to the 
means of finishing education. Now education being but 
to form and adjust associations of ideas in the infant 



o 



238 

mind ; to open physical knowledge of things ; to com* 
duct the tonic organs to proper articulation ; to estab- 
lish such associate movements of the muscular organs 
by habit as are necessary to subsistence; and to form 
habits of voluntary action conformable to purposes of 
social virtue; it will be no frivolous consideration to 
inquire how far this institute will naturally serve to 
advance either of these parts of the work : ia do- 
ing which, it will be most convenient to examine every 
part of an establishment separately, in this respect ; 
and consider each of these in application to the several 
stages of education. After which it will be proper to 
inquire whether there be any way to render this thing 
more beneficial, by any improvements upon the com- 
mon ways of employing it. 

First, then, how far does that part of .religious 
establishment I have called creed, operate towards tho, 
furtherance of human education? Or in other words, 
what improvement comes from this quarter, that tends 
to insure or accelerate the true end of this business ? 
1st. With regard to the fashioning of associations in 
the system, which is the first step of the process ot 
forming character, I don't see that we can come at any 
important bearing of this hereon, unless we consider 
opinions in a different point of view than merely as 
objects of assent, and, unravelling the relations of t\\Q 
ideas whereof the opinions consist, examine the habi- 
tudes these have with progressive association, and of 
course the share of efficiency the one may have over 
the other. Now the creeds oi various sects are so di- 
vers and complicate thaf to recapitulate ever so brief- 
ly what history exemplifies of this sort of description, 
would be to make a volume; wherefore it is necessary 
in this plage to conce ifcrate our investigation in those 
specimens, of mos< influence and notoriety. Some 
associations are arbitrary; find some natural. Some 
things arc found to co-exist in rerum natura, and 



239 

others casually coalesce in the flow of our imagina- 
tions; while there are others which we voluntarily 
ogether, and institute their connection for certain 
purposes-. And the forming of associations, susceptive 
to the province of education, is nothing more nor less 
than making some ideas and movements apt to appear 
together or follow one another rather than others. 
The influence (he subjects of opinions concerning for- 
eign existences, are capable to command, in direct 
causality, on this part of the work of education, does 
not take place very early in life. A bias from this quar- 
ter does not take place very early on the associations of 
children, any otherwise than by secondary occasion, in 
the manner super-vizors are hereby used to manage 
them. Whenever children understanding the terms 
used to represent the subjects of those opinions, 
are capable of comprehending them, which may yet be 
before they have the knack of investigating their 
grounds, weighing probabilities, and judging of truth 
and falsehood, their practical associations (I mean 
such as are hkely to oive effect to motives, and turn 
to actions) are obviously liable to be biassed by them, 
e. g. What effect shall we expect the opinion of the 
Mahometan " that the prophet m a nocturnal visit to the 
Empyrean, arid subsequent communications of the 
angel Gabriel, collected the alcoran," or of the papist 
"that the uttering of certain words and acting of cer- 
tain motions, by a priest, has the eiiect to change the 
very nature of a substance and convert bread into 
iic sn, wine into blood, <xc." to have upon the associations 
of a young mind, but, superinducing -'.ideas that are 
aside from the natural course and consistency of things, 
to nonplus the efficiency of its best principles of ac- 
tion, such as sympathy and reason, which they con- 
troul, much to the prejudice of philanthrophv ? And 
herein we see what makes mystical opinions pernicious 
istoitianUc ideas^ which have been heretofore noticed 



210 

to have a depraving tendency upon the understand- 
ings of social agents, by bearing aside the energy of 
the moral powers from the natural establishment of 
human enjoyment. For if happiness be associated 
with things which we see no where connected in na- 
ture, and the means of it placed without the compass 
of human possibility, how shall we form upon this prin- 
ciple a system of moral conduct adapted to our real 
condition ? Chimerical ideas are baneful to the mo- 
rals of youth. And for this reason 1 think that of 
those opinions of foreign existence which may be 
reckoned true, the abstruse part should not be let into 
the notice of the young. Those opinions which con- 
tain mystical and incomprehensible things, should 
not be let into the notice of the young very early. 
To accustom the understanding to fantastical ideas, 
is to pervert the understanding. Understanding be- 
ing given man to preserve him and direct him to hap- 
piness, should evidently, for the advancement of these 
purposes, be cencern'd with the ideas of those things 
which are capacitated to comfort or trouble, preserve 
or destroy him, rather than with what has no discover- 
able connection with those causes adapted to effect u« 
in these ways. Now to use the understanding to ideas 
different from what it was designed for, is perverting 
it : and to connect supernatural ideas (if there be any 
such) with natural ones; to introduce supernatural 
ideas into the scene of natural connections with what 
we by sensation and reflection find ourselves here en- 
vironed by, and subject to the operation of, with the 
presumption to lorm any system of conduct tlierebv, 
is like putting an institute of geometry into the hands 
of a child who yet has leanrd no more of mathematics 
than to name and count the nine elementary numbers. 
Supernatural will no more consist with natural ideas, 
to constitute the same system for the guide of a finite 
being, than a crane will serve for a pilot to a fleet. 



S4i 

The world abounds with absurd opinions; and upon 
the whole matter I think that theological, and hypothe- 
tical opinions in pneumatology, in general, however se- 
riously we may be persuaded of their reality, were to all 
intents and purposes of advancing the interest of mo- 
rality (since no man is under any obligation to disclose 
his opinion to another, and men might live much more 
harmoniously and believe that all had the same opinions 
of such things if one did not voluntarily blurt to 
another his secret and impracticable notions) better 
kept in the heads of those to whom they belong than 
industriously propagated toothers; because they in- 
variably tend to associate fantastical ideas with real : 
and to this end, the mind is prepared by the placing 
of frivolous ideas in the condition of motives, in- 
stead of such as have a conspicuous practical conse- 
quence: for principles of action are wont to be referM 
to something real. He that shall examine the creeds 
of the several sects in India, China, Africa, Norway, 
and some other countries, and observe what influence 
they have or are likely to have on the early associa- 
tions of ideas in the mind of man, which every day's 
experience shews to engender connexions that have a 
very conspicuous ascendancy in the direction of his 
will and the fashioning of character, will have reason 
to conclude that the impression of these on young 
minds, has no very auspicious tendency in respect to 
the end of moral principles. 

Secondly. To initiating the mind in the knowledge 
of things, these can scarce be conceived to contribute 
any aid at all; since opinion falling short of know- 
ledge, and being something less clear and satisfactory, 
ran no more produce the latter, than the light of a 
taper can increase that of the sun. But yet I think, 
on the other hand, the persistive inculcation of fantas- 
tical creeds, tends to retard and obscure the. know- 
ledge of realities. For the persuasion of thijjgs ur- 

Si 



242 

real, so, far as they are contradictory of what is real, 
completely shuts out real knowledge. Indeed they 
furnish the mind with some perceptions; but these are 
no longer of any import if the matter of the opinions 
be unreal ; or they are of a delusive import. Delu- 
sion may sometimes conduce to temporary good. But 
the general good of the whole race, or of any commu- 
nity, requires the extent of knowledge, and real know- 
ledge too, so far as our faculties are fitted to reach. 
And now these things to be believed, are not things 
that are known, nor the proper objects of knowledge ; — 
if they were, they were no longer to be believed. We 
were no longer required to believe that which we 
were to know. Belief is an operation of the mind 
very different from knowledge, and falls much short of 
it, in respect of assurance. What a man knows, he is 
past believing ; he does more than believe it, he has 
certainty of it. He clearly perceives the agreement or 
disagreement of two ideas ; whereof belief is but the 
assumption;— a taking it to be, without perceivingit. 
We maybe called to believe, in these creeds, proposi- 
tions that are no way mystical nor romantic ; but his- 
torical matters of fact : propositions that carry such a 
weight of probability with them that when presented 
to our understandings we cannot choose but be- 
lieve them. For the act whereby the understanding 
assents to and acquiesces in a proposition, is a necessary 
act determined by the preponderancy of the probabil- 
ity perceived. Yet of these, some may have practical 
impott, fit to be observed in our necessary business as 
social rational agents ; and some may be such as have no 
practical import at all ; and which how ever easily they 
are believed, have no consequence in our conduct, to 
make one single duty or default of a duty, and have 
no effect in or upon actions that come after it, that 
has any constant or necessary connection with the 
belief of them ; any more than the persuasion, upon 
report, of the flying of a crow or the falling of a tree 



^J>3 



in a southern or riorthern direction. Finally no one 
is likely to become much more knowing by being ap- 
prized of a variety of opinions and articles of faith ; 
or much better stocked with means and devices to ad- 
just or execute the purposes of life. 

Thirdly. What good can we expect these creeds to 
do towards the arts of speech ? This might be na- 
turally enough supposed a point quite out of the verge 
of their operation; yet will be found upon examination 
to throw several obstacles in the way of the finishing 
of this habitation ; and this, without taking into ac- 
count that some of these creeds themselves dictate 
imprudent methods of serving this accomplishment; 
there being among the jumble of absurdities which 
confuse and debase mankind, the incidence of erro- 
neous ways of representing ideas by speech, which 
accustom the use of odd circumlocutory phrases, or 
confine and cramp the dialect to ungrammatical and 
defective application of language. The quakers think 
they must speak in a fashion that is ungrammatical : I 
mean the rudest part of the society. About two in a 
thousand of them, speak more grammatically than other 
sects. The catholic creed precludes the laity from 
acquaintance with the. bible : therefore they cannot 
so much as come at a habit of speaking in the style of 
that book which they are taught to believe their fined 
salvation rests upon. Several blundering ways of 
talking come from the fantastical creeds of several 
sects; which so far as they bring up their children in 
earnest constraint to their favorite modes, trammel 
their initiation in language with the incumbrances of 
error and imperfection. There is a number of words 
and phrases, of great currency among the professors of 
belief in some of these creeds, to which it is difficult 
to discover any determinate meaning — such as ' effec 
tual calling, 9 < sanctification,' 'regeneration of the 
spirit,' 'special grace/ ; sufficient grace,' 'effectual 



244 

grace,' 'spirit of grace,' 'spirit of faith,' 'trinity;' ex^ 
perience of religion in the soul, and sundry others, 
which many of those who use them I imagine have no 
clear determined ideas in their minds, to which as 
common standards they uniformly apply them ; but 
that every one has peculiar notions in his own mind, 
which he has annexed to them, and intends them to 
signify, or else the sounds themselves are thought to 
carry some certain meanings invariably, and to have 
an uncontrollable power of significancy, so that there 
is no concern of explaining them, one to another of 
those who use them. 

Fourthly. To morals I cannot discern that these 
tre often very propitious: for most religious creeds 
ascribe to supernatural beings the dispositions of men. 
So, those things they revere as gods, are made re- 
vengeful, cruel, proud, versatile, and ambitious ; — and 
these bad qualities being associated with an object of 
veneration, perverts every principle of moral estima- 
tion ; since it confounds moral good and evil ; and 
God being at first imaginatively fashioned in the like- 
ness of man, man is apt to esteem man in proportion 
as he emulates that model. Thus by being strongly 
catenated to the emotions of esteem and admiration as 
being the characteristic appendications of their objects, 
the excessive passions^ ambition, pride, revenge, cruel- 
ty, &c. are too apt to become objects of those emo- 
tions : and this is the actual subversion of morality. 
Creeds may in some cases, by occasion of the discipli- 
nary influence of those passions, fear and hope, which 
they stir up to a remarkable degree sometimes where 
ardently receiv'd and not doubted, cause some courses* 
of decent moral conduct which otherwise would not 
be. And yet at the same time we find some of the 
most selfish, sordid, unsocial, as well as also profli- 
gate persons in civil communities, to be of those who 
profess to believe strictly in these creeds. Other me- 



245 

thods are necessary, to instil moral principles, than 
the inculcation of creeds. Philanthropy will hardly 
get root by such culture. A slavish fear of superior 
beings, can never produce benignity; and the exertions 
that are excited by ardent hope with assurance of re- 
ward, are of a venal nature; not terminating in those 
large and diffusive views which distinguish true virtue. 

Fifthly. What can these creeds do towards the 
perfect! ng of those arts and trades that serve men's 
livelihood? To which I cannot imagine they can do 
any thing, any more than smoking tobacco. As they 
fill the trains of imagination with a succession of fan- 
tastical creatures, and terms, of unnatural combinations, 
instead of real beings, I suppose they give occasion to 
those odd fashions of architecture, painting, and cloth- 
ing, used by different sects in various parts of the world. 
They may likewise be observed to give rise to several 
peculiar occupations, which otherwise had no use. 
The Mahometans have one fashion of building their 
houses of public worship ; the Pagans of India, another ; 
and among the christian sects, the quakers have one 
fashion and the episcopalians another* Yet though 
they give occasion to trades, no one learns any mechan- 
ic art more expeditiously for firmly believing in these. 
So that it does not appear that this part of religious es- 
tablishments called creed, is indispensably necessary 
to the finishing of right education, or has any necessary 
connection a* a cause, with either of tire essential 
parts of the work. 

II. Let us inquire into the influence of the second 
part of a religious establishment, which is apparahtg, 
upon the advance of education. All the improvement 
education gets either directly or indirectly from the 
apparatus employed in plans ©f this sort, must be 
purely accidental. For what do altars,- iavers, tan- 
kards, vases, beads, churches, prayer-books, music- 
books, hymn-books, organs, images, bells, towards ad* 



2i6 

justing those associations which form the primordial 
principles of moral character, the operative motives of 
our actions; more than any natural objects, as rocks 
or trees, which is no otherwise than as they stand 
within the same possibility of being associated with 
other ideas, as any objects of our undertsar_ding ? They 
operate only as secondary prompture, if we except 
books (at least what are contained within the books ;) 
and their music books serve as vehicles to an initiation 
in vocal music. These materials, however, by their 
grotesque fashions intruding themselves among the ac- 
customed perceptions and fantazies of the young, 
have an influence that is of little or no utility, or is 
pernicious. But when to these supervenes the consi- 
deration of their divine tutelage and appropriation as- 
cending hereon, they become the ties of very delusive 
and cramping associations, making fantastical distinc- 
tions among common things, whereby the young mind 
attaches certain degress of importance in estimate, and 
solemnity in aspection, to pieces of matter which mere 
chance and the humours of men have given a peculiar 
modality. To adjust associations, is to fix things in 
their true natural ranks, as organized or unorganized, 
remote or proximate causes or effects. But when a 
piece of matter is supposed to be the receptacle of an 
invisible almighty being, or one particular shape of it 
more pleasing to that being than another ; an altar the 
peculiar fireplace the deity chooses to have for the 
roasting of animals, or the water of a certain river 
that which he makes his favorite vehicle for washing 
away the depravity of sinners ; then these things are 
thought to be better than others of their kind ; and an 
unnatural system of estimate prevails, when connec- 
tions are assumed, that have no existence in nature. 
But,— 

Secondly. If it be of little service in the adjustment 
of associations of ideas, it may contribute something 



247 

to the second stage of education, in furnishing the 
mind with real knowledge and correct opinions: and 
to this, I think the apparatus of this institute adds as 
much physical knowledge as that of the particular 
existence of the materials whereof it is, with their va- 
rieties and instituted uses, which being allusive, tra- 
ditionary, or peculiariz'd, cannot afford knowledge 
that has much practical import to social beings at large. 
As much valuable knowledge may be infused and as 
sublime and important truths deliver'd in a hovel as 
in the most superb dome The same things may be 
done in the open air. And men by applying their 
natural powers to such operations as they are fitted 
for, in any place and condition whatever, attain use- 
ful knowledge, and opinions that are fit to direct their 
conduct. And although these materials serve the pur- 
pose of accommodation, are used as means for the dif- 
fusion of that which is deemed important moral in- 
struction, and are the occasions to the impression of 
some individuals with peculiar associate emotions, 
which still may be of no general consequence ; yet 
there is no causality inseparably and naturally inher- 
ent in these particulars, connected with such effects 
as they are thought indispensable to the insurance ou 
The books, in this part, convey the materials of opin- 
ions, of greater or less weight. Demonstrative know- 
ledge they seldom exhibit. The worst of it is, they 
contain specimens of mystical opinions; reports of 
supernatural and incomprehensible things that are wont 
to engender romantic ideas in the minds of those who 
acquiesce in them. There are also many historical 
matters that are doubtful because they are obscure ; 
and their obscurity is a necessary consequence of their 
antiquity, which places their original beyond our ex- 
ploration ; insomuch that it is difficult to satisfactorily 
determine what particular things the writers of them 
had before their minds, that they applied their words 
to represent. There is some moral knowledge very 



MS 

handsomely displayed in these books; but they are 
not the only resource of it. 

Thirdly. What assistance are we to expect from 
the natural tendency and invariable efficacy of this in 
the third process of education, viz. the training of the 
powers to the proper use of articulate signs? This we 
must seek altogether in the books employed in this de- 
partment ; for the other articles can afford nothing of 
the kind but their names. The directory codes, pan- 
detts, magazines, or histories, that societies are guided 
by in their opinions and operations, beino- mostly an- 
cient, and the nature of human language being to fluc- 
tuate and change with the succession of generations of 
men, and the variation of their accustomed manners, 
do not always afford standards of propriety. For, if 
words there used are now applied to different ideas 
from what they stood for at the time they were writ- 
ten, in the same language, or (the people being extinct 
that used that language) at the time they were trans- 
lated ; or else not being used at all to signify any thing 
in common communication ; it is plain that to inculcate 
upon the young the use of these is different from train- 
ing them to exact propriety of speech. Some sects 
undoubtedly have standard books very correctly writ- 
ten. But to come at propriety in the use of words, 
we look to the common most usual ways of a commu- 
nity or nation in the matter of communicating then- 
thoughts, or those of the prevailing part of it. The 
adjustment of articulation is out of the province of re- 
ligious establishments. 

Fourthly. If we can get any instrumentality to mo- 
ral education from this part, it will be an important ar- 
gument for the institute : since this being the sublim- 
it and most momentous part of education, whatever 
remarkable service recommends this kind of institute , 
must be in advancement oHhis ; ami in fact, as it falls 
out, it has most pretence to serve this, of all parts of 



219 

education. The houses dedicated to the services of 
these establishments, are generally adapted to accom- 
modate a purpose of moral teaching. There is one 
thing (which however takes effect only in cold cli- 
mates) that is incident to these stations, restrictive of 
their advantageous instrumentality, and that is an ex- 
posure to cold, from a custom of disusing chimneys or 
stoves in this sort of buildings in country places; 
which, in those nations who accustom themselves to a 
high temperature at their dwellings constantly,induces 
too great a contrast in the sensory for the purpose of 
calm contemplation, which h first necessary when any 
loral or intellectual excellence is to be cultivated. 
Jut although these may be made very serviceable to 
he purpose of assembling several people together, and 
iisseminating valuable instruction ; yet what very 
much intercepts their utility, in this branch, is their pa- 
geantry. This takes place in most civilized nations. 
Men make the apparatus of their religious establish- 
ments, the vehicle of pageantry. The pride of appear- 
ance, and the ostentation of sensible pre-eminences, no 
where displays itself more than in the buildings and fur- 
niture of some of these establishments. Their churches 
are exemplars of gaudery. This splendor, that they 
are used to envelope the apparatus of their insti- 
tutions in, has bad effects. In the associations ofideas 
it has an operation rather frusti atory of the end men 
seem generally to propose to themselves in these esta- 
blishments, by strongly associating with the most seri- 
ous things the vain ostents of human rivalry : and that 
can hardly be esteemed a pure philanthropic work, 
the elaboration of which is the consecration of human 
pride, and that the very meanest of pride too, pride of 
distinctions in appearance. Now this association of 
the appearance of vanity with what is designed to in- 
duce the most solemn conceptions men are supposed 
capable of, brings on a frivolity of thought, and a habit 



250 

of superficial views of natural beings, that precludes 
deliberation, sound reasonings, and thorough reflection. 
Hence those the most intimately connected with this 
apparatus, by instituted attendance or otherwise, are 
not the most considerate people in the world. It 
is said the pandects of religious sects are useful 
to moral education by affording valuable prudentials, 
and substantial doctrine of that sort that directs to the 
greatest good. It is difficult to do justice to this sub- 
ject, by reason of the multiformity of sects and esta- 
blishments, and of their standard theories. The Ma- 
hometan ethics contain undoubtedly some good dog- 
mas ; and the Christian, more philanthropical ones. Se- 
veral other sects may possess true moral directories, 
mixed with mystical things. The consequence is, in 
proportion as their books contain these, they are esti- 
mable. But to prove they are indispensable to the pur- 
pose of completing this part of education, it is neces- 
sary to shew that the like moral truths are not disco- 
verable by afty other source than by an acquaintance 
with the creeds and standard data of these sects. Of all 
others, the Christian sect possesses the truest ethics. 
The most rational chain of moral doctrine is found in 
the Christian books. Such should be the whole guide 
of this sort : but fact is lamentably otherwise ; and the 
reason is, men, being degenerate by bad practices, hate 
the restraints of moral virtue. The ethics of the Ma- 
hometans, the Hindoos, the Persians, and the Chinese, 
90 far as involved in their religions establishments, are 
not such as are directly deduced from physiological 
realities, and so interpretations of the law of nature ; 
but the result and dependence of their instituted 
creeds, discipline, and ceremonies ; being fashioned 
according to the accommodation of worldly views in 
such establishments. There may be excellent ethics 
in the books of all those sects, but they are intertwin- 
ed with mysteries, and mixed up with such proposi 



251 

tions as counteract philanthropy. In our Christian 
gospels, and in writings connected with them, we find 
the most benign and universal dogmas of ethics, the 
most liberal and enlightening apothegms, that strike at 
the roots of aristocracy, of usurpation, of tyranny, and 
of every fashion of human pride. 

Fifthly. In advance of those trades and associate 
motions that are the mechanic means of life, I conceive 
this does little, except by affording patterns of various 
workmanship. These give rise to some occupations, 
and furnish some persons with work which otherwise 
they had not Besides this, I cannot see that it affects 
arts and trades in any other way ; and I do not con- 
ceive how these materials can serve as aids to accelle- 
rate the acquisition of any degree of skill or aptness 
in any of the mechanic arts, or the sublime arts, or in 
fact, any fashion of useful associate movement, unless 
it be singing and praying, which the music books, hymn 
books, and prayer books may subserve. 

III. We will next examine what influence that con- 
stituent of a religious establishment which is call- 
ed ceremony, has upon the advance of education. 
Tirst Upon the association of ideas; I apprehend this 
nany times has a bad effect. Ceremony, consi- 
lered as a thing instituted by a tutelary power, to 
accompany the exercise of devotional emotions, is 
lot reckoned a cause so much as a sign ; an expe- 
dient to represent something to human observers ; 
in which capacity, since it is not an indispensa- 
ble mean, exclusively expressive, it implicates a dimi- 
nutive estimate of Deity ; it seeming little other than 
trifling to annex to certain sentiments a set form of 
moving, and make it essential to whatever is intended 
to be advanced by the expression of them, while there 
are various ways (perhaps others much apter) where- 
by men can come at the assurance of one another's 
emotions and persuasions of mind. It serves to exer- 
cise the body rather than the mind, which it tends to 



252 

paralyze and constrict by its unavoidable irksomeness. 
To the Deity they can express nothing : therefore to 
suppose the Deity to institute such ceremonies, is to 
suppose him frivolously employed. The principal ce- 
remonies used by the Christians are the washings and 
plungin^sof the baptists; the groanings, shriekings, 
screamings, shoutings, kneelings, tumblings, &c. of the 
methodists ; singing, which is used by all except the 
quakers ; eating and drinking what is called sacra- 
ment, a symbolical meal, which most of the sects use ; 
also preaching and praying, common to all. 

Now these formalities in general when strongly as- 
sociated with the idea of moral good in the minds of the 
young, have an effect that rather debases than elevates 
human excellence. For vague unaffecting irritation is 
likely to be taken for the substance of a thing of which 
it is only a catachrestical concomitant. And if 
children be taught that religion is the only good thing, 
and that religion consists in these ceremonies, or that 
it is a thing to which these are essential, what becomes 
of meditation, contemplation, benevolence, charity, 
hospitality, gratitude, and patriotism r The ceremony 
preaching, is of itself a good institute. This com- 
mands real utility. Yet none is more abused. Nothing 
is more important in the whole circle of the means of 
education, than the access of communicating orally 
from the treasures of experience, erudition, and wis- 
dom, the directories of prudence, the precepts of mo- 
rality, the knowledge of the sublime p;u*ts of nature. 
This sort of communication is more pathetic to young 
minds than reading. Nothing is more conducive to 
the improvement of the mind and forming the heart 
to virtue, than the public dispensation of moral teaching 
on stated days set apart for that purpose. But the 
way in which this is generally used, is rather corrupt- 
ing than improving to morals. Stuff is dealt through 
fliis channel, that does no good. Much that goes in at 



353 



one ear and out at the other, of very intelligent per- 
sons ; and much of that which really deludes, and 
sets awry the thoughts and affections of ingenuous lis- 
teners. The fjuakers have a ceremony that is happily 
adapted to settle a good association in the minds of 
the young; and that is their instituting stillness, and 
natural easy posture of body, maintained in their meet- 
ings : to which may be added, the audience of their 
young to their public transactions. 

Secondly. In the second part of education, wherein 
we are engaged in enlarging the human mind with real 
knowledge, and notices of real existence, ceremony 
has very little efficiency, any farther than the bare 
perception of that ceremony itself, in its varieties. 
For its origin, its design and ends, are mostly very ob- 
scure and afford no knowledge at all, being little other 
than conjectured. The knowledge of a system of 
ceremonies and their order, holds no very high rank in 
the scale of human accomplishments. The bare know- 
ledge of a ritual I consider as much worth as that of 
a picture. It is imagined these have efficacy to induce 
stability. Truely, where is constancy, certain syste- 
matic forms are adopted ; but rather gathered from 
prescription than speculation. There must be some 
forms accustomed ; and who is constant, who is stable, 
has a stated form, and uniform circle of action, in his 
course. But this is the effect, not the cause, of sta- 
bility. It is not inform, to substantiate the principle 
of stability. Charity, hospitality, patriotism, grati- 
tude, punctuality, are the ceremonies which have real 
value. The knowledge of these is a good thing ; and 
the habit of acting them, a better. But these are ge- 
nerally left out of church formularies. There is how- 
ever an excellent practice still kept up in some church- 
es, of periodical contributions to the poor. This is the 
best ceremony extant in the whole round of religious 
institutions. 

23 



254 

Thirdly. That the appropriate rites of worshipping 
societies, serve to facilitate the assecution of expert- 
ness or propriety in the use of the articulatory organs, 
or association of certain exertions of them with the per- 
ception of certain figures conditionarily representative 
of the sounds made by those exertions, I presume none 
will contend. There are habits of dialect, there are 
ways of talking, peculiar to every club or knot of so- 
cial mankind consociating for some particular reason, 
or promotion of some favorite view: ways of applying 
words that discriminate them from others. The chy- 
mists have one way of talking ; the Martinists and 11- 
luminatists h&vetheir peculiar ways In our Christian 
churches, there is often a whining or singing way of 
reading the hymns, praying, &c. which displays no ve- 
ry eligible example of speech to young who attend. 
The quakers make it a point to speak ungrammatical- 
ly. Bating this, I don't know of any thing in ceremo- 
ny that hinders training young, in the societies of 
Christian establishments, to a proper and correct use 
of the powers of communicating. But the same may 
be done out of the pale of those establishments. If 
we have any ceremonies fit to forward this part of edu- 
cation, they are preaching, praying, and reading ; 
which, if they be philologically done, set forth good 
examples to young who listen hereto, of propriety 
of sound and application, worthy for them to imitate. 

Fourthly. To that part of education whose immedi- 
ate drift is to ground, habituate, and establish, such as- 
sociate motions of the parts of the human system as 
are applicative of, and comport with, the abstract pur- 
pose of social virtue issuing in the greatest good of the 
circle of percipient beings susceptive to the sphere of 
our reflective reciprocity, I fancy the ceremonies in 
most common use are not conspicuously desirable for 
fheir serviceableness by way of inuring to operative 
measures of moral good ; because they have no deter- 



ruinate or efficient connection with benevolent pur 
poses. They seem generally to have a symbolical re- 
ference to something that does not come within the 
fetch of our projection as finite intelligent agents ; and 
so falls not within the province of our speculative 
virtue ; and a mechanical conforming of the body to 
such measures, has not the knack to infix moral prin- 
ciples, or habituate good purposes. Preaching, how- 
ever, is a ceremony that, judiciously employed, might 
be a vehicle of very excellent impressions: but the 
vague manner in which it is used, incurs pernicious 
results. If pure moral science were invariably con- 
veyed by this, instead of peculiar opinions and disputa- 
ble hypotheses, it were a blessing to the human race, 
The formal preaching of traditionary and cabalistical 
discourses on things confessedly mysterious, contracts, 
in the minds of youth, habits of inattention. It makes 
them habitually inattentive to solemn discourses on 
morals or religion ; and entirely disaffects their minds . 
from them; but generates a general habit of inatten- 
tion, and quiescence of the reilective energies. And 
the reasons I have for this opinion are these : 1st. 
Whatever nonplusses the understanding of man and 
mocks his powers of judgment, being repeated several 
times in the perception, counterbufts the advances of 
curiosity as directed to the subjects of such discour- 
ses ; the soul seeks for something to entertain it in oth- 
er directious of its thoughts. Here (when young) not 
rightly conducted, it is dissipated, and fixes upon no* 
thing. Here then is a privative of the exercise of atten - 
tion, at a period of life when that exercise is of the ut- 
most consequence, and of indispensable requisition. 
The whole circle of reflective energies depends on the 
exercise of attention in early life. Whereas any thing 
that is understood more or less interests the feelings, 
and confines attention ; to preach to a young man 
about the ' three persons in one God,' * the miraculous 



m 
T 



256 

conception,' * the foreknowledge and pre determina- 
tion of all events,' ' eternal fire,' ( regeneration of the 
spirit,' sanctification," crown of glory/ * breast-plate 
of righteousness,' &c. is to make him dull and inatten- 
tive to preaching. 

2dly. Any thing too often and too constantly re- 
peated, becomes irksome. This is the case with mys- 
tical discourses that are periodically reiterated; which, 
were they ever so true, would make them unaffecting:, 
and the mind less and less attentive to them, without 
some new accompaniments or improvement. There- 
fore these things lose their power of excitement ; peo- 
ple are no longer irritable to them : and as the clatter 
of a market is not heeded by its inhabitants, and those 
sleep soundly who live by a cataract; so these sleep 
in the midst of the discourses with which they are ad- 
dressed. 

Sdly. Even allowing it all to be true and clearly un- 
derstood, as clearly as human capacity allows most 
communications to be comprehended, yet such as they 
are constantly accustomed to hear, will not interest and 
concern the mind of those who listen to them. They 
will not chain down the attention. We will take for 
a sample, a discourse that on a particular day of the 
week is delivered out of several thousand pulpits- 
What is the whole compass and burden of it? There 
is a sort of affected, catachrestical invocation to grati- 
tude for something that is done that is above our com- 
prehension. All is done that can be done ; it is said to 
be a sin to think we can do any thing ourselves that 
is meritorious ; nothing for us to do, a spirit of medita- 
tion and prayer being to be given us from above by a 
vouchsafement of special grace : so that in effect we 
are merely told to sit still, as supine and listless as the 
hounds in our kennel, (with respect to any sublime 
duties :) this is the apparent drift of the whole. > ow 
what ardour can be excited by such an object ? Caa 






§5? 

such an object excite anydegree of ardour, either of at- 
tention, hope, or desire of action ? It presents not the 
eligibility of any action ; for it condemns it. What 
concern can the mind feel about such an object ? Now 
I declare that this fills the mouths of the young with 
jests and reflections on religion. This, in the first 
place, by making the mind habitually inattentive, pre- 
disposes them to licentiousness and all extravagance. 
Ridiculously shall divines complain of the ridicule of 
religion ; theirselves the original fomenters of it. For 
their own measures and operations, the absurdities in 
their own schemes, make them the remote causes of 
the disgust and contempt that, in the minds of the 
young, are attached to the religions of the world : and 
induce all that sorry scoffing and sneering at things 
sacred, that without reasoning the multitude runs head- 
long into. Some sects have ceremonies that have an aus- 
picious aspect towards moral improvement. But these 
are isolated, and few in comparison of the whole Of 
this kind, among the Christian sects I fancy the quakers 
have two of the most eligible ; their training youth to an 
acquaintance with the transactions of the community ; 
and their silent meetings, which, accustoming each 
member to absolute liberty in pursuing his own trains 
of thought, give place to originary and conscientious 
reflection. The system of ceremonies used by the En- 
glish episcopal church, is the dullest and vainest, per- 
haps, except the Roman catholic, of all the formularies 
of the civilized world. The catholics exceed the ex- 
travagance of this, in some particulars, and in others 
they i'all short of it. The end of a sign is to denote 
something to some other. By these formal manners 
and recitations so far as they are used for signs, (and 
they can have no pretence to any considerable end in 
any other capacity, because they produce nt) effect that 
is conspicuously beneficial) men seem to aim to signi- 
fy, either to God or to men, that they have certain sen- 
22* 



258 

timents, opinions, wishes, and desires, within them. 
Now with respect to the first of these, this representa- 
tion is frivolous and presumptuous, and cannot be a 
part of good moral manners, nor a valuable expedient 
to promote the design of moral improvement (and the 
means are so repetitious, and the variety so small, that 
they cannot obviously serve intellectual improvement) 
for the Almighty possesses a direct aspection of ail the 
most secret thoughts of our hearts, and the beginnings 
of all our volitions and aims, independently of any of 
our twistings and turnings ; and to use these formal ex- 
pressions under the pretence of any such view as de- 
noting to the Deity that we possess particular opin- 
ions, emotions, wishes, or desires, whether with regard 
to His existence or attributes, or to our own duties or 
destinies, is manifest nugacity, if it deserve no worse 
name : for I am apt to think* if men can insult the De- 
ity, it may be in the way of this parade to affect to per- 
suade him of the existence of things whereof they must 
be sensible He has perfect knowledge : and this is 
treating like a man a being of infinite sapience and 
power. To signify to their fellow men these things, 
this seems to be a roundabout and idle recourse. For 
in the name of common sense let me ask, were it not 
much more expeditiously efficient towards all the ends 
of communication, to succinctly tell them in plain ex- 
pressive words, that they (the communicators) had in 
them such opinions, passions, wishes, &c. than to moil 
through such an uncouth tissue of vain repetitions of 
words and gesticulations, of obscure reference, for the 
sake of a common-plac'd parade, that can have no pre- 
tence to utility but as it draws in an aping passive mul- 
titude to be fit tools to some aristocratical project? 
Indeed it serves to obscure, rather than display, any 
thing that is really telt or opined ; and is at best as a 
shroud to the want of thought. 



rotten must be the support of those arguments 
that pretend to hold up this system as an efficacious 
expedient to promote moral education. As little can 
be pretended of the usefulness of these forms towards 
intellectual improvement. For what can it do towards 
the clearness and regularity of our conceptions, or the 
propriety of our sentiments and emotions, to have oth- 
ers insinuating to us, by allegorical ways, that they 
have certain persuasions on their minds, and that they 
deem it a duty to express them publicly ? The ways to 
improve the understanding are by knowledge, proofs, 
distinct ideas, habit, and correct associations; and 
whether this repetitious system of ceremony and alle- 
gorical allusion to things obscurely symbolized, can 
forward any of these, may confidently be questioned s 
and 1 think those who lend their service to lead or su- 
pervise this farce, drudge for subsistence set off with a 
fantastical dignity, whose chief worth is yet in security 
[>f ease from more masculine labors. For my own 
part I have found it an insipid treat, when, coot-like, 
I have danced attendance at the chapel, and awkward- 
ly passive to the harness of fashion, waited like an ape, 
the moving of each diversifying feat. 

Some ingenious man has held that, to discipline chil- 
dren to bowing, kneeling, leaning, and the accustomed 
postures at church, in conjunction with their per- 
ception of the sounds of words used in service, while 
yet they understand them not, accelerates the im- 
pression of a true idea of God, by associating with the 
signs used to express it, certain feelings and emotions : 
and for what reason ? Because men are used to cringe 
and kneel to tyrants and nobles ? Thus a sort of re- 
verence directed to whatever object, may always be 
induced by one mechanical process, by way of the 
same set of associations. But the question arises 
whether these associations themselves are right ? To 
ask whether they are right, is, in regard to morals, to 



280 

ask whether they are (according to the law of nature) 
conducive to a due contemperation of passions! 
For it is worthy of remark, the way in which men view 
a man in great power; as a king, a duke, an emperor, 
is not the true conception of the Deity. 

Fifthly. All other arts besides those of performing 
the ceremonies themselves, these conduce to the fur- 
therance of, I fancy get their help by way of the wants 
these generate, of certain materials mechanically mo- 
dified, and customary attendance, whereby occasions 
are brought about for work- and of course rise given to 
habit in that work : which is not saying that we can 
either teach or learn the principles of any other occu- 
pation or trade with any greater facility within the 
scene of ceremonial parades, or within the knowledge 
of them, than in any other condition. 

IV. In the next place, what is the tendency of that 
part of religious institutes which is called discipline ? 
Every church has a form of government. There are 
distinct duties, pertaining to the members, supervis- 
ors, and servants. These, fashioned according to va- 
rious systems, obviously incline to influence several 
parts of the progressive education of those who live in 
the habitual observance of them. 

First, then, w r hat bearing has this species on the first 
part of education ? That it must naturally tend to 
fashion the early associations to the sentiment of aris- 
tocracy, is very evident in a general view of this sub- 
ject. For what else can we expect of the unpracticed 
intelligence, when a priest is reckoned superior (by 
some inseparable attribute) to other members of the 
society ; that it is his duty to visit and console the dy- 
ing; that his communications there have peculiar effi- 
cacy, paramount to those of other ranks ; that it is his 
province and function to preside at communions, and 
the duty of lay members to pay some formal reverence 
to that personage, and submit to ceitam forms laid 



261 

down, (sometimes perhaps capriciously) by him ; that 
certain other officers and heads of departments, as 
clerks, criers, wardens, elders, curates, rectors, bish- 
ops, archbishops, popes, cardinals, prebendaries, deans, 
prelates, confessors, chaplains, dignitaries, friars, Do- 
minicans, Jesuits, Carmelites, Benedictines, bramins, 
bonzes, muftis, imans, vicars, have their institution 
and authority from the special delegation of the powers 
above, or have something paramount to human ap- 
pointment for the reason of their precedency and dic- 
tation, but to imbibe a monarchical or aristocratical 
turn of mind that discountenances the genuine senti- 
lent of natural equality belonging to all the individu- 
als of a species ? And the powers of understanding are 
more kindly distributed than to circumscribe their ex- 
cellence to the circuit of collegial advantages. Soci- 
ety must have some distinctions. The simplest and 
best contrived democracy that can be, requires some 
distinctions in a community; but they are all subsidia- 
ry, and are controllable by the idea of universal equa- 
lity. Whatever tends to multiply these distinctions 
beyond what is necessary to the subservience of the 
public good, verges to aristocracy. The distinctions 
which the disciplines of many sects disclose, have such 
a bearing ; and tend to interfuse among our associa- 
tions commentitious ideas of merit and dfemerit, virtue 
and vice. They impress no mechanical art ; they evi- 
dently do nothing towards the improvement of speech ; 
and the duties they impose are not moral duties ; and 
all other duties are to be known without the know- 
ledge of such an existence as church discipline. 

Those peculiar modes of motion which they make 
incumbent on the members of religious societies, are 
but ceremonial services whose use is barely symboli- 
cal, or else expedients to an aristocratical scheme* 
The whole is but as the drilling of a company of sol- 
diers to a purpose of conquest or defence. For what 



262 

is the issue of the whole matter? A community is kept 
established in certain general habits of moving, i e. 
certain great circles of action are kept up ; and what 
are these great circles made up of? Not charity, hos- 
pitality, return of benefactions, oblivion of grudges ; 
no. The best of it is (generally) the hearing of pub- 
lic harangues ! This community hereby held up to the 
world in certain ranks, orders, divisions, that mark 
several degrees of respect and influence, exemplifies a 
distinction that is incipient aristocracy. For when 
men are used better by, and ^at more favors of, this 
select society by belonging to it, and being in uniform 
with the rest ; what is the tendency but to set one por- 
tion of human society above another, or to give it some 
pre eminence and ascendancy, by awarding it a con- 
fessed preference in esteem ? 

Secondly. How shall we convert this to the enlarge- 
ment of real knowledge of things ? The internal re- 
gulations of churches, whereby certain offices and 
ranks are substantiated, are, in general, not adapted 
to enlarge the views of the human mind ; but seem, on 
the contrary, to cramp them. Discipline that enforces 
certain creeds, and the revolving of emblematical ap- 
plicatives, cannot give freedom to thought. Without 
freedom of thought, knowledge cannot be extended. 
When the mind is stopped at a certain creed ; when 
the career of investigation is stop'd at a settled creed, 
and a conformity to certain formal measures imposed 
by authority ; the understanding, especially it it be 
young or unaccustomed to enterprize, seems fettered, 
and is apt to become stationary in respect to improve- 
ment. For any establishment whose scope is to bound 
the view of mind, to set land-marks to its free inquiry, 
and to hamper its flight with the vindication of assum- 
ed principles taken to be pre-established without know- 
ledge of their being so, in order to support which all 
other knowledge must be kept in check, especially all 




263 

lights that counierview such vindication must be in- 
dustriously shut out, and whose whole business is a 
fixed circle of repetition, it is evident tends to make 
mind stationary, rather than to carry it continually 
forward towards its perfection. 

The moral efficacy of this by way of preserv- 
ing settled order and regularity, to dispose and in- 
cline the mental powers to scientific accessions, must 
be adventitiously instrumental if it be any thing; and 
in proportion to the constancy of this instrumentality, 
is the true estimate of this mean in relation to this part 
of our business. To get physical knowledge it is ne- 
cessary that we examine the material world by our 
perceptive faculties, and the aid of various experi- 
ments. To get moral knowledge we must exert our 
reflective powers in observance of the causes, nature, 
tendency, and effects, of voluntary actions. To get 
logical knowledge, and knowledge of signs, we are to 
carefully note the several signs made use of, and the 
reasons and measures of their application. But em- 
blematical signs are not of great importance when bet- 
ter ones have got into extensive use. And to confer 
the reality of all these sorts of knowledge, we have no 
way but to teach the young to opproximate an imita- 
tion of what we ourselves do to get this knowledge, 
i. e. such exercises of the faculties. 

Thirdly. If this be useful in perfecting the art of 
communication, it must be by muring a body of men 
to a certain dialect, the habitual exemplification where- 
of, influences all young observers. But this influence 
is not likely to be very extensive, nor permanently 
predominant. The people that venerate this kind of 
government, and live in a kind of drudging conformi- 
ty to it, are not such as are scrutinously observant of 
causes and effects ; and, entertaining imperfect notions 
of morals while they neglect education in general, 
are not prone to strictly pursue properly adapted 



264 

methods to accelerate perfect articulation and pre* 
priety of language in those of whom they have the 
bringing up. If it be so, that this thing diverts from 
true physiology (skill in which is necessary to the pur- 
pose of education) it may be so far considered a hin- 
drance to the success of that process we are here seek- 
ing the advance of How far certain forms of speeph 
instituted to be statedly used, contribute to produce a 
confinement of the skill of language, and inure a dull 
repetitious way of talking, every one's observation 
must determine- 
Fourthly. In the conforming of the powers and parts 
of the human system to moral purposes, I fancy the 
discipline of church polities is not able to afford us any 
indispensable service. For whoever shall warily look 
after the partiality, and sometimes encroachment on 
natural liberty, that are frequently put into effect by 
such as have any degrees of instituted ascendancy as- 
signed them by the accustomed institutions of this de- 
partment ; also the pride, jealousy, fear, envy, and oth- 
er bad passions that are exercised by it ; together with 
the cramping and prejudicate views of things, devolv- 
ing to selfishness and brutality ; will have reason to be- 
lieve it tends co throw embarrassments in the wav of 
moral advancement. Witness the brawls, the schisms, 
the private arid public church quarrels, on history. 
Witness the crusades. Witness the Jews' treatment 
of Jesus Christ and his disciples. Witness the inn u- 
sition in Spam. 1 presume to assert that this disci- 
pline, in its usual fashion is not inseparably connect- 
ed with morai skill and aptness. For there does not 
seem to be a conspicuous institution of reward to vir- 
tue or disgrace to vice. 

Certain public discipline, establishing a true esti- 
mate of actions by fixing to each its proper consequent 
in praise or blame, t o be displayed by some affecting 
way, is an important desideratum in formulary ethics! 



263 

Rare specimens of this are accustomed in some clubs ; 
— but it is very little known. 

There is one tendency in this part of our religious 
establishments, I fancy, that militates against good 
moral instruction ; and that is auspices of a spirit of 
aristocracy. For anyone that considers these church 
governments as distributing out several distinct privi- 
leges of jurisdiction, in consequence whereof the com- 
munications of priests are thought to be efricacious, and. 
a priest is thought to be better than a layman ; whereby 
bishops, curates, chaplains, vicars, rectors, archbishops, 
deans, prebendaries ; pontiffs, popes, cardinals, pre- 
lates, dominicans, confessors, censors ; imans, bonzes, 
bramins, &c. have several powers and degrees of ex- 
cellence, and their peculiar ministration is conceived 
higher in influence, and preclusive of that of other 
ranks; will perceive that these things directly oppos- 
ing the equality of man, so far oppose democracy ; and 
therefore will have rational ground to conclude that 
they cherish the principles of aristocracy, in opposition 
to universal philanthropy. This is rather stiff sort of 
machinery to bring forward a profection in morality, 
in point either of skill or art. For any thing that in- 
timates fortuitous or elective superiority of some indi« 
vidual rationals above others, in respect ot audience 
with the Divinity, or dispensation of his effluences, or 
that others cannot come at the same degree of intui- 
tive knowledge or demonstrative, by exercise of like 
powers theirselves have, has an aspect of repressing 
those liberal emotions and speculations that universal- 
ly announce true philanthropy. Periodical assembly 
for the purposes of meditating, and hearing didactic 
and persuasory discourses on morals and the laws of 
nature, is a good tiling; a desideratum really impor- 
tant, and publicly beneficial. Periodical lectures of 
ethics are of great utility to a republic Agents to 
conduct these operations are collaterally necessary. 
23 



§66 

Fifthly. Those establishments whose discipline ne- 
cessitates the use of service manuels— particularly 
hymn-books and music books, furnish some versifiers, 
musicians, and printers, with work, thereby adjuvating 
their temporal weal ; but they form and substantiate 
no trade, any farther than they use peculiarly modified 
implements, of exclusive adaptation to their particu- 
lar designs characteristic of such establishments. That 
this any other way secures the instillation of the prin- 
ciples of the arts of life, seems very doubtful to tne. 
Moreover, by dint of example itself it may favor the 
establishment of several knacks and arts in those who 
live within the irritation of such example. The arts 
of singing and dancing, one would think might be 
learnt with particular facility and advantage where 
such ceremonies are carried on in these establishments, 
when the example is regularly bolting npon the ap- 
prehension of bystanders, and also by pleasurable sug- 
gestions egging" the imitative faculty. The shakers 
have a ceremony of dancing, in connection with sing- 
ing wherein they use much of the doric mood, which 
(of itself, ndependently of the subjects its accompani- 
ments may be designed to express) suggesting to the 
minds of observers trains of ideas that nave a cast of 
the sublime, either in the movement of their succes- 
sion, or of the ideas themselves, may remotely subserve 
good morals by inducing magnanimous emotions, and, 
therefore, is no trivial spectacle. 

So then it seems on this cursory survey, that no part 
of a religious establishment [such as the present state 
of human society affords] is a necessary cause or in- 
strument of the right finishing of any part of educa- 
tion ; and that its utility is not very extensively con- 
spicuous by its adventitious subservience. This thing 
being granted, the next and last question that arises 
on this head, is, whether this same institute can be 
possibly fashioned and applied in a manner that 



267 

would be productive of good impressions, and directly 
contributive to the design it is valued by. That the re 
course is susceptible of amendment, is obvious to com- 
mon notice. Among all the divers species' of religious 
sects, I know of none that is possessed of a collection 
of lore capable of being elevated to such an improve- 
ment except that which has obtained the appellation, 
christian. The doctrine and history of this species are 
really abused. Nothing is more evident than that the 
founder of this religion singly intended, in all the 
course of his communications and operations, the re- 
finement and elevation of the moral part of man. 
Leaving aside therefore for the present moment tfee 
consideration of the other species 9 , such as those of In- 
dia, China, Turkey, Persia, &c. as they are generally 
granted by studious philanthropists and moral philoso- 
phers at large who have taken notice of them, to be 
mere tissues of absurd and monstrous chimeras forever 
irreconcileable to the true and most natural appropri- 
ation of our intellectual and moral powers, and to the 
economy of practical benignity, we will particularly 
adapt our observations to this, which, for its universal 
dogmas of sublime ethics, that are to be found amongst 
the originals of its creeds, transcends all others. I 
know of no religious system whose archives possess 
such treasures of ethical lore as are to be found in the 
discourses of Jesus Christ as represented in our lan- 
guage in the gospels ,* in some of those of the apostles 
who taught after him ; in the proverbs of Solomon ; and 
in other writings connected with these. Since then all 
other 6pecies 5 are generally admitted by the enlighten- 
ed part of the world to be inferior to this, I shall not 
now rummage history for particular details of the pe- 
culiarities of other systems, but shall proceed to point 
out some of those particulars wherein this sort of esta- 
blishment (particularly exemplified in that of the 
Christians) considered as an institute, is misapplied, 



268 

wrongly fashioned, or deficient in regard to the promo- 
tion of the end universally desired to be advanced by 
it: which, by the way, will suggest the means and mea- 
sures whereby it may be improved to a more direct 
and successful use. And these particulars are the rea- 
sons M\y the moral world is not more refined under a 
prevalence of religion ; why those communities which 
are distinguished for their punctilious attendance on 
religious operations, are not distinguished by hospitali- 
ty, charity, munificence, meekness, &c. ; and likewise 
why the children of persons noted for sanctimony and 
professional conformity to religious discipline, are not 
re!i!ar::a5ie for stability, sobriety, nor integrity, in 
their active characters. The same things, further- 
more, may satisfactorily account for the growing con- 
tempt of religion so common among all ranks of lay- 
men. 

I say, the scope of the first preacher of the doctrines 
men built this establishment on, was the melioration 
of the moral character of man. If his design was any 
thing, it was this. This design seems evident from 
those parts of his communications which we can indu- 
bitably comprehend, and are evidently not ambiguous. 
Now either the preaching of Jesus Christ had some fix- 
ed design to it, whereon it proceeded to some deter- 
minate end ; or it had no fixed design. It seems un- 
questionable from the evidence of several circumstan- 
ces, that the communication of Jesus Christ was some- 
thing designedly. This received, it follows that it 
must be either good or bad ; for what is purely indif- 
ferent, supposes no design, no determinate purpose. 
Either the design of Jesus Christ's preaching was good, 
or it was bad. It seems more evident to be the for- 
mer than the latter; i. e. it seems satisfactorily >o, if 
there is any reliance on the authenticity of its repre- 
sentation in our language. Now, if either good or bad, 
it must be either morally good or bad, or physically 



£69 

(i. e. sensitively) good or bad : I am now speaking of 
efficiency. It appears to be, mostly, the former of 
these, inasmuch as he was daily delivering out moral 
instruction to the people he was amongst ; and al- 
though many cures were done, and the bodies of per- 
sons delivered from torments and restored from dis- 
eases and infirmities, yet the main design seems to be 
moral improvement. That this is so, appears reasona- 
bly conclusive to me, from those parts of his ministra* 
tion wherein he enunciated these beautiful and sub- 
lime precepts : " Whatsoever ye would have others do 
unto you, do unto them :" " Forgive your brother not 
only seven times, but seventy times seven :" " Go 
ye and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy 
and not sacrifice:" And his illustration to the law- 
yer, of the proper objects of benevolence, when the 
propriety of the answer to the question ' who is my 
neighbor ?' being defined by the relation of a being 
with like wants and feelings, a due exercise of that be- 
nign and godlike affection being exemplified in the 
character of the Samaritan, closing with a pathetic in- 
version of the lawyer's last question, which being sa- 
tisfactorily solved, the reply to his introductory ques- 
tion resolves itself by way of inference, into this sen- 
tentious exhortation, " Go thou and do likewise." Al - 
so in his reply to the rich young man who inquired of 
him the way to complete his moral character, " Go and 
sell what thou hast, and give to the poor." These 
and several other passages of his doctrine, together 
with the tenor of his practical life, shew that his pre- 
vailing scope was to exalt the morals of human socie- 
ty ; and that in whatever point of duration or of space 
his mission originated, it intentionally tended to 
make men better, and more directly progressive to their 
greatest good. This is all the determinate aim we can 
gather from those parts of his preaching we can clear- 
ly understand ; and if it was not this, we may conclude 

*33 



270 

there was none ; i. e. if the determinate aim of it was 
not this, that there was no determinate aim in it. The 
same conclusion we collect from his life as from his 
preaching. If it was this utility that stood as a mo- 
tive to the project of this communication to and treat- 
ment of, mankind, that the gospel exhibits, it behooves 
mankind to carefully attend to the good things he 
taught and ensampled, and endeavor to walk in his 
steps so far as his character is imitable, when they pre- 
sume to take on themselves the denomination of disci- 
pleship to the author of the Christian religion. For, 
these premises admitted, the immediate purpose of it 
is, undeniably, social virtue. Christ inculcated the 
social virtues ; the social virtues he transcendantly en- 
sampled. He went about doing good, tho-.igh suffer- 
ing privations, and in continual danger ot the violence 
of his enemies. To be a disciple of one, is to follow. 
To follow, is to imitate and obey. Therefore one who 
practices the social virtues, is a Christian ; and one 
who does not practice the social virtues, is not a Chris- 
tian. Indeed he made use of parable ; but he used it 
to be explained, and in order to apphf t xu)t to lock' use- 
ful truths from the scrutiny of human reason He gave 
it to be explained to those to whom it was given to un- 
derstand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven : 
such as in sincerity sought to know pure truth. The 
life and conversation of the author of Christianity, com- 
port with the apparent purport of what we understand 
of his doctrine. It is from what we understand that 
we are rationally to form our judgment of the main 
design and original intent. It behooves men when 
they find any thing that is i^orally eulightening, or 
consolatory, to sincerely appreciate and apply it, en- 
suring the advantage of its inherent excellence, and 
not beat their heads about inquiring where he who said 
it, came from, or whether it first originated in his own 
mind or in that of a superior Being, who transfused it 



271 

to the other ; but, if they find a good moral maxim, to 
value it principally for its being such, to be eager to 
make good use of it and improve it according to what 
it is capable of doing and appears originally designed 
to serve, let the first starter of it have come from 
whence he would : and not let the benefit of it be whol- 
ly rejected and lost, by idle seeking to know demon- 
stratively, or carry irresistibly the persuasion to oth- 
ers, where he came from, to what destined, how, with 
what, and by whom commissioned, who kindly divulges 
to them such truth. For the natural and unavoidable 
conclusion from the whole of this piece of history, is, 
Jesus Christ was a universal philanthropist, who had 
in view the elevation of the moral character of social 
mankind, and designed the amelioration of the real 
condition of men, by guiding and habituating an access 
to the consummation of their greatest good ; which ly- 
ing by the way of social virtue, he inculcated and 
practiced the social virtues in their perfection. He 
illustrated the moral law of nature ; he taught the uni- 
versal equality of men in natural right. And now what 
greater, more noble, more benignant scheme, can we 
enter into a clear .and adequate conception of, than 
that of the amelioration of a whole species ? What sub- 
limer effort ol philanthropy can we ascribe to any be* 
ing in the range of our sensitive or speculative know- 
ledge, than this,. the design to elevate the moral charac- 
ter of man, when this elevation is considered the ex- 
clusive access to the consummation and perpetuation 
of his greatest enjoyment? I presume none can de- 
monstratively make out and attribute a more munifi- 
cent one : for the creation of millions of worlds, and 
of as many species' of intelligent beings, is not an act 
of philanthropy done to percipient beings which before 
that act was exerted existed not, and could not be ob- 
jects of any act, nor feel either pleasure or pain in con- 
sequence of any intention in the universe. Yet if any 



272 

one has a larger idea of benignity, to which this docs 
not agree ; and can frame to himself a different plan 
(a more extensively beneficent) to agree thereto, h6 
is welcome to enjoy it ; only he ought, as a friend to 
mankind, at least to disclose it for their edification. 
But, as it may be presumed to bz of the same species, 
varying merely in degree, if there be any safe reliance 
on the established significancy of our words ; if the 
reality of the actual design of Jesus Christ, in refer- 
ence to the experience of mankind, as purported by 
his converse and actions, have been any thing that is 
repugnant to, or incompatible with, what is above re- 
presented, the question must arise, was it good ? Was 
the design good ? For cultivated communities have 
certain fixed ideas of modes which by general consent 
they customarily denote by certain representative 
words, and one thing is called benignity, another ma- 
lignity, another munificence, another utility ; in the 
use of which there is a general coincidence of the* 
greatest part of those in a community, who use them 
the most frequently : and the idea of infinity, which is 
merely an endless addibility of successive acts of phi- 
lanthropy or benignity, or of individual objects of one 
such act, joined to this idea that is signified by the 
word benignity, is all that can be meant by infinite 
goodness. This respects the number of the acts and 
of their objects: but in the strength of the emotion and 
the directness of the intent, that go into that idea, we 
have certain bounds which our conception cannot 
transcend. Now, if that benignity which moves to 
promote the greatest good we can conceive men to be 
the subject of, and to promote it in the most direct 
way or in the only way we can rationally assign, 
be not the greatest decree of benignity men can form 
any clear, distinct, precise notion of, I desire to know 
what that is But if these things be so, as the above 
statement gathers them from the plainest parts of the 



273 

gospels (and no one will pretend that it is a revealed 
duiy to learn a foreign language, especially the lan- 
guage of a nation that is dead, to come at the sigmfi- 
cancy in which an ancient book was written,) it fol- 
lows we are to look upon Jesus Christ to have been 
a universal republican and philanthropist, a practical 
moral teacher, whose express scope was to advance 
the grand design of moral philosophy, the business of 
civilization, by thedevelopementof all those moral ex- 
cellencies human nature is heir to, which is the fixed 
track the universal forming principle has assigned for 
the greatest enjoyment of the species. To be a Chris- 
tian, is to be his disciple. To be his disciple, is to fol- 
low him. To follow him, is to imitate his imitable 
manners, and put into practice his practicable pre- 
cepts. In order to this, it is requisite and incumbent 
to search out the purport of his lessons, to attend to 
his word?, to meditate on his doctrine and the tenden- 
cy of his manners in social life. The form of church- 
es, of service-books, of ceremonies, is indifferent True 
religion is true morality. True Christianity consists 
in social virtue. The head and founder of this order 
of religion, sought to do good to men of all ranks, un- 
der all conditions in all times, on all days, equally : 
not excepting his bitterest enemies. If any thing of his 
meaning be lost by the obscurity, imperfection, trans- 
ference, or change of language, or by the disparity of 
the manners of remote times and nations, we are not 
to account for it. We are to judge of, and infer from, 
what we see and comprehend; and if we have not a 
test within us of what is morally good, we are no long- 
er the subjects of virtue or vice, praise or blame, lle- 
ligion is good in those parts wherein all rational man- 
kind can conscientiously acquiesce. 

Apologues and parables that, being interpreted, serve 
to insinuate the spirit of valuable moral truth, are good 
things. Those which, imperfectly deprehended, pleas- 



87* 

ing while they teach, avail to incite to the application 
of important maxims, allure to the auscultation of any 
teacher or leader ; and we are to consider them addi- 
tions, not disparagements, to a course of preaching. 
Many reasons may be assigned for this cabalisticai 
way of communicating ; among which none perhaps 
are more probably adequate than the jealousy of the 
Jewish people concerning innovations, and their tena- 
city of their creed and discipline on account of the in- 
tervolution these had with their civd polity. 

It seems upon the whole matter, then, that these es- 
tablishments stand deficient in adaptation to the de- 
sired end which they ought to be and generally are 
valued for subserving, by reason of the following cir- 
cumstances : 

First. The creeds, I say, contain mystical postulata, 
enigmas, romantic ideas. The matters of opiniative. 
speculation that make the objects of faith, supposed 
essential to true worship, exhibit many romantic and 
enigmatical ideas. Of all the rhapsodies of reveries 
ever urged upon the assent of human understanding, 
the heathen mythology presents the most monstrous 
spectacle. But this is not now in credit. The pro- 
fessors of it are dead. Of the creeds of existing na- 
tions, those of the Persians, the Hindoos, the Arabi- 
ans, and the Chinese, I suppose are the most replete 
with chimeras ; although numerous other nations fall 
little short of them in this respect. > ow these roman- 
tic ideas are of two sorts ; either representing such 
things thereof there is no human possibility of existing 
in reium nutura, or such things as are not conceivably 
probable to exist. These, when put into propositions, 
with other ideas, can only make irreconcileably con- 
tradictory po^ulata and inexplicable solecisms, and 
put mankind at swcud-points upon that which is not 
reducible to any moral use- These make the incon- 
sistencies that disfigure so many systems of faith-. 



2? 5 

These fantastical ideas have a perverting influence upon 
the understanding, very unpropitious to morals; and 
the greater the persuasion of their reality, the more 
prejudicial their effect. For my part I don't see the 
necessity of any historical fact being put into a creed. 
All we want in a creed, is, certain things believed to be 
reasonable to do, in consequence of certain substances 
having certain powers and tendencies. And this I 
conceive, is all of a creed that can practically direct 
our purposes and actions as social agents. Facts and 
incidents indeed may have weighed in the mind, to 
produce an assent to a proposition, and made us have 
such an opinion, which, when the acquiescence of the 
mind has taken place, the subject matter of the opinion 
that operates as a motive, reason, or modifier of our 
conduct, is all that ought to appear in a creed. 

Secondly. The belief of them is reckoned a moral 
duty. Belief of these creeds is represented to be a mo- 
ral duty. It is customary for the supporters of a par- 
ticular system to urge upon others the belief of their 
articles, not only as an advantage, but an important 
moral duty which they owe to their maker and to their 
own souls, and of serious consequence to their eternal 
weal. Now to tell men that it is their duty to believe 
a proposition, is to tell them something that insults the 
cultivated and sagacious, misguides the enthusiastic, 
staggers the ignorant, and distresses the weak. And 
that which does these things, cannot be very conducive 
to the end of moral education. Obligation can extend 
no farther than power. Where is no power to do, is 
no duty. The act of assent which is called belief, is 
a necessary act. We have a moral duty to cultivate 
our understandings, to improve the faculties and ta- 
lents we are endowed with as rational intelligent be- 
ings: it is our duty to inquire after truth, to collect 
proofs, and tn weigh probabilities; for all these things, 
to a greater or less extent, we have power to do or 



276 

forbear to do. We have the same power to forbear to 
do them as to do them ; as we will. But when at any 
momenta proposition is proposed to the understanding, 
the understanding necessarily assents to it, or does not 
assent to it, according to the preponderancy of the evi- 
dence at that moment present to the view of the un- 
derstanding, on the one side or the other of the ques- 
tion whether it has a foundation in rerum natura, or 
has not a foundation in rerum natura, or whether it is 
or is not veritable : and this as fixedly as one body 
gravitates towards another, and as the heavier bodies 
attract the lighter, in the mundane system : it being as 
impossible to believe that which appears not probable, 
or less probable than the contrary, as for a river to as- 
cend a mountain. This therefore being a point out of 
the verge of human liberty, cannot be a duty. It is 
reasonable to tell mankind it is their duty to study, 
to satisfy their minds of things they cannot have intu- 
itive certainty of, and discover the probability of im- 
portant questions that may have great influence on 
their condition. 

Thirdly. The establishment is made a matter of con- 
tention, and a nursery of parties. The managers dis- 
agree among themselves, and aspire at predomination. 
The spread of these sectaries called baptists, method- 
ists, presbyterians, universalists, quakers, congrega- 
tionalists, episcopalians, and the like distinguished 
bands of opiniative speculators, has a bad effect upon 
the condition of human society, by the following modes 
of operation : — 

1st. By cramping the minds of men in theic specu- 
latory views of moral and natural relations, wherein 
their sentiments are contracted, and the develope- 
ment of philanthropic designs and sympathetic emo- 
tions is circumscribed or utterly blocked up. The 
prevalence of these sectarian doctrines to engross the 
speculations of the commonalty, is attendant upon the 



I 



277 

multiplication of their meetings and the strife whidv 
they generate. Now their doctrines are generally of 
a nature to cramp the estimate of men's worth by con- 
ditioning their desert and imputed excellence upon 
mystical things beyond the grasp of natural power, and 
which are objects even transcendant to human compre- 
hension : wherefore no worth and real excellence are 
o be discerned in their fellow creatures but what they 
ire pleased to honor with that estimate, which are no 
other than what, passing with them as the only allowa- 
ble signs of them, are their external conformity to die 
distinguishing ceremonies and discipline of the re- 
pective clubs or lodges, which they accept as a pledge 
if their fealty and effectual devotion to their aggran* 
dising views. For when one is told that true Chris- 
tianity consists in a " new heart," and not told where- 
in this altogether differs from a disposition which arises 
from a desertion of bad principles and habits, and a 
pursuance of good ones — since the latter is competent 
io our apprehension, and the other is not ; it follows 
that moral excellence is resolved into a subtlety that 
is inconceivable by the human understanding, and the 
adjudication of merit involved in utter darkness and 
incertitude, wherefrom it becomes suspended upon ca- 
price, and determined to arbitrary signs that sensibly 
mark their inclination with respect to the mechanical 
prevalence of particular bodies of men with such fash- 
ions and theories as they are upholding. 

%. By infusing party spirit ; which is but a habit of 
distinguishing and contesting parties. Such a habit is 
strengthened by the influence of these sectarian ope- 
rations ; consequently party spirit is strengthened by 
it, if not originated. This clashing of one party with 
another, and the aspiring ambition which attends it of 
excelUiig in strength and influence, the means to which 
are numbers, wealth, and show, effectually preclude 
social haopiness in those communities where they ava 



278 

operating. For their impressions are the very reverse 
of those feelings which constitute social happiness, 
therefore they are absolutely incompatible with it 
Bickering and contumely rise out of these ; and neigh- 
bors are unsocial and disobliging: their interests be- 
come in their view separated, by being associated with 
this fa,natic extravagance which, at the beck of humor, 
diverges into different courses, the whole being esta- 
blished by tradition, and senseless apish custom, which, 
without perpension, travels in a beaten road. 

3. It introduces aristocratical distinctions among 
the parts of civilized society. It leads up an aristo- 
cratical distinction of the qualities of different mem- 
bers of civil society at large, and breeds secret jea- 
lousies and unaccountable antipathies between different 
persons. For a professed adherent of one of these par- 
ties is hardly admitted to a free intercourse with the 
domestic society of another. A strict baptist shall not 
be thought competent to marry a methodist, nor a pres- 
byterian a quaker : and a person of a liberal turn of 
mind, in the balance of whose estimate whatever dis- 
tinguishes them is vanity or political artifice, shall be 
denounced by all as a cause of alarm : so that he must 
either be a downright hypocrite, or be scouted as a 
brutish, lowliv'd, thoughtless ninny, below the medium 
rank of quality, or else a dangerous character ; in ei- 
ther case, thought unworthy of their intimacy. If he 
speak sincerely, he gives the preference to neither par- 
ty, and condemns what constitutes their distinctions ; 
and if he give the preference to none, he is thought to 
be of neither, and not to value what constitutes them : 
thence, he is excluded from very great privileges 
merely for his sincerity. Whereupon, if the princi- 
ples of human estimation are resolved either into fri- 
volous and fantastical things, or into inconceptible 
ones, it is plain that men are liable to be perversely 
estimated oue by another. Their estimate must be 



$79 

vague, defective, and erroneous ; for mankind must be 
esteemed for that which they do not possess or cannot 
achieve, or else disreputed for that which they cannot 
avoid. 

Fourthly. The preaching that is accustomed, is not 
strictly steady to the dispensation of pure ethics or the 
impression of practical principles. To preach doc- 
trines which are distinct lrom, especially if they mili- 
tate against, true ethics, is obviously unfavorable to 
moral education, which immediately depends on the 
application of the principles of ethics. Instead ot this, 
mystery is often preached. Contradictions are often 
held forth. Paradoxes and enigmatical subtleties 
abound in the preaching of the day. If there be any 
thing more eligible than ethics to be preached in order 
to promote moral education, it is that which goes direct- 
ly to confirm or elucidate its dogmas : which may be 
any part of the physical world which shews the con- 
nection of causes and effects, and their permanent 
adaptation. Use is also had of these things to produce, 
train and habit in thinking ; which are apt to conduce 
to stability. But our preachers customarily go beyond 
nature, and build up theories that baffle human com- 
prehension. To preach mystery does at best but set 
the human understanding to conjecturing, instead of 
deducing useful truths, or purposing beneficent pur- 
suits. And where this mystical preaching is, nothing 
more useful can occupy the thoughts of those whose 
attention is engrossed by it : so that if it does no other 
harm, it precludes that which would set the thoughts 
upon the contemplation and pursuit of good purposes 
and benignant views. 

Fifthly. Most of the other ceremonies in use. have 
no conceivable utility ; and if they shew any thing 
they are designed to shew, more than that those who 
act them see fit to act them, it is by strained symboliz- 
ing : e. g. ablution, circumcision, genuflections, sacri- 



280 

Sees, sprinkling, change of dress, &c. Now what natu- 
ral connection have good thoughts with these things? 
What original affinity, or aptness to combine, have 
those ideas and feelings which constitute the excel- 
lences of our nature, and the ideas of these modes? 
Moral virtue certainly gets no advancement by the 
practice of these. Meekness, charity, gratitude, and 
hospitality, are not made habitual by the repetition of 
such sort of actions as these ceremonies. They divert 
from, and being put in the place of, effectually inter- 
cept the perfecting of the social virtues. Any cere- 
mony that recommends or habituates any of these, as a 
contribution for the poor, for strangers, or for the pro- 
motion of any great and good work, is commendable, 
and worthy of rational beings. 

Sixthly. Too much show and splendor are attached 
to the churches and other materials of an establish- 
ment. When we accustom ourselves to pageantry, 
and make the most alluring fascinating examples of it r 
to what amounts our preaching against vanity ? How 
can we lift up our voice in indignant declamation against 
the pride of appearance, when we openly exemplify the 
very thing, and the churches over our heads, wherein 
we are denouncing vanity, are specimens of it? By 
what subtle knack in the art of oratory can we put on 
the aspect of sincerity when we are declaiming against 
that of which we indulge ourselves in the practice, for 
no other than that very reason by which we expose the 
imbecility of others, viz. because the multitude uses it ? 
But this is not very often made the object of censure 
in pulpits, any more than any other vice : The main 
drift of public preaching, is theology. This magnifi- 
cence is so strongly united to religion that it is thought 
to be a part of it. 

Seventhly. A vile habit ofprostituting the privileges 
of the sanctuary to occasions of personal ostentation 
and eclat, is tolerated ; whereby young people come to 



281 

make the institution a mere hobby of vanity, and attend 
church constantly for the express purpose of shewing 
themselves, and curiously surveying others, with no 
other speculation in their heads but that which con- 
cerns the color, figure, and texture, of the stuffs and 
trappings that envelope their bodies, or their features, 
then* sound, and motion, where the highest pleasure 
they aspire to, arises from the novel, pretty, and ena- 
mouring appearances hereby elicited, which making 
up the whole of their entertainment there, is all that 
jnoves them to attend. 

Eighthly. The establishment is of such a nature, and 
is so estimated that an adherence to the exteriors of 
ceremony and discipline, and a professional acquies- 
cence in the matters of belief, become a cloak of hypo- 
crisy. The superficial gear of sanctimony is used as 
a cloak of hypocrisy. Whereas a scale of plain ethics, 
with instituted attendance on stated lectures, in plain 
easy habiliments, where extravagance is disallowed, 
would not be liable to be perverted into so base an ap- 
propriation. But now men can turn their religion in- 
to such a cloak because the essense of it is taken inde- 
finitely to be something besides mere benjiecence, and 
not clearly understood what. The children of this 
world, perceiving that moral virtue is universally ad- 
mired, desire to get the honor of Christianity without 
the trouble of it. Hence comes a counterfeit Chris- 
tianity. They patch up a sort of religion to serve their 
turn ; it being their interest to make the rest of the 
world believe that Christianity, which common sense 
teaches consists in the practice of those things which 
Christ taught and set patterns of, is essentially consti- 
tuted of something very distinct from what we can 
come to a notice of by our senses, that is not vouchsafed 
^ven to the purest morality. It would cost too much 
to be real Christians. To be in fact grateful, charita- 
hle^ hospitable, meek, or scrupulously just, would in- 
§4* 



282 

air too great an expenditure of this world's goods, too 
much circumspection, too much serious thought ; and 
in earnest to act out the philanthropist in all his ven~ 
turous mazes, would subject them to too much priva- 
tion of selfish enjoyment Therefore to cut a shorter 
and cheaper way to their end, they substitute long 
prayers, washings, groanings, punctilious sanctimony 
©f port, attendance of church, &c ; thinking hereby to 
make their fellow mortals believe that they are Chris- 
tians, and give them the honor of that which they don't 
have the trouble to practice. And in this way they, 
ultimately aim to insinuate into those mortal observers 
the persuasion that they possess benignity, when in 
matter of fact they are void of it, and basely substitute 
•this vile counterfeit for true religion. 

Ninthly. The establishment is made a refuge of im- 
piety. Just so far as any thing aids vice, it disserves 
virtue. Persons who have notoriously bad characters, 
get favor of the world by belonging to an establish- 
ment of this sort. Some, on the commission of sin. fly 
to penance as a screen from due punishment ; as some- 
thing that atones for their excesses, their oppressions, 
©r their worldliness ; so that being steady and true 
to this exterior tackling of religion, becomes a sort of 
sanctuary to wickedness ; and as long as men can per- 
suade themselves that there is in this, that which g;ives 
them the tutelage of heaven in spite of vice, we can 
hardly bound the mischief it does the cause of morali- 
ty in this line, where its operation is rather under- 
ground. Not that every thing is evil in itself, that by 
being abused becomes the accidental cause of evil : 
but the wrong estimate, the wrong appropriation of 
things, are moral evil. 

Teuthly. Those delegated to preach to and lead 
communities, are not, tneirselves, remarkable for ex- 
hibiting good examples ; but often are what they ought 
with utmost zeal to preach against, examples of pa- 



2S3 

geantry, luxury, suflenness, worldliness, inhcspitality, 
and sometimes superciliousness. 

Eleventhly. The preaching is not designated, and 
limited in its kind by the popular authority of a com- 
munity ; insomuch that all preachers have the latitude 
of their imagination and caprice, to display their gifts 
and proselyte knots of sticklers to a favorite scheme, 
by preaching theology, history, ethics, astrology, pneu- 
matology, witchcraft, or conjuration. If it were made 
lawful only to preach ethics in their meetings, that 4s, 
in the religious meetings of all societies in a nation, 
the establishment would be better adapted to the right 
direction of our education. In this case a religious esta- 
blishment would be a school of moral science ; which 
it in fact ought to be, and which rightly conducted 
would redound to the honor of human nature. Where - 
9 Sls now our preaching is mostly of a sort that goes in 
atone ear and out at the other, (as the common phrase 
is,) not being correctly aimed at the objects it should 
properly influence ; that is to say, the moving princi- 
ples ot moral life : and all this not solely on account 
of its irksomeness and repetitious way, but as much on 
account of the catachrestical and mystical nature of its 
matter. And this is one predominant cause of the tri- 
fling amongst young people and others, in their notice 
and use of religious ordinances. While serious and 
pathetic addresses on the nature, tendency, and con- 
sequences, of their voluntary actions, would insupera- 
bly seize their attention, which being continually 
chained to such objects, must habituate such a state of 
mind as would effectually rescue the faculties from the 
pursuit of vain or more pernicious themes. For the 
mind of man, particularly when in its vigor, must have 
some object to concentrate its energy: and that which 
is most exciting, will engross this energy, to the pre- 
clusion of others. This excitement works by way of 
the ruling passion ; and hereby reason itself is called 
into activity > and gets improvement* 



284 

These are 9ome of the most conspicuous circum- 
stances that obviate the utility of religious establish- 
ments ; and the principal reasons why these establish- 
ments, as they are at present usually modified and 
managed amongst mankind at large, do no more con- 
duce to the finishing of the moral part of human educa- 
tion. An improved establishment, I think would be 
one which should consist of the following primordial 
articles. 

1. A spacious, commodious, though plain building, 
adapted to the comfort of people in general, for the use 
of the assembling of several persons together on stated 
days, to hear and inquire into important truths. 

2. A speaker attending this building periodically, 
as one day in seven, to deliver discourses in ethics, on 
those things that are first and most essentially import- 
ant for mankind to do, in the use of their faculties and 
government of their lives ; and who should be superior 
to .ill craft. 

3. A habitual though not constrained attendance 
of the people of the country on those stated days, for 
the purposes above mentioned, and without pageantry. 

4. Certain distinguishing permanent marks or pledg- 
es of the commendation of virtue and disfavor of vice, 
instituted to be awarded to certain courses of conduct ; 
which, in favor of virtue, should be proportioned to the 
general tenor of their carriage who by a given continu- 
ance in exemplification of the principles drawn from 
the ethical lectures they hear, evince such habits of 
inind, and such modes of the social auctions as con- 
stitute certain degrees of the real excellence of rational 
mankind. 

5. Select persons deputed to keep order, and apply 
those marks and pledges according to the sense of the 
society; as well as to distribute and appropriate the 
funds appertaining to such society. 



385 

6. An institution of periodical collections by contri- 
butions of money or other means, for the relief of stran- 
{;ers, of poor, and for the promotion of other benevo- 
ent works. 

Such an establishment I think would be useful to 
mankind in general, in all countries ;and signally sub- 
serve moral education. 

In this brief view of religious establishments I have 
not dwelt with particular scrutiny upon the tenets and 
manners that distinguish the pagan and other foreign 
establishments; but have in the main, centered my ob- 
servations in those which are accustomed in the parts 
of civilized society where the sciences and arts at pre- 
sent stand at the greatest degree of advancement is 
extant; and that, for several reasons, whereof perhaps 
none is better than that it is proper for ?uch to whose 
notice what I say may come, to study the improve- 
ment of the religion of their own country, and that, in 
the matter of their design, these establishments repre- 
sent most other. 

And thus I have taken a general, however imperfect, 
survey of the chief institutes used by mankind in edu- 
cation, and some of their most prominent defects ;and 
hinted at some means by which I think they may be 
remedied : wherein, if I have suggested any thing that 
may be of use to excite any new train of thought in 
such as having superior genius and the means to carry 
their plans into execution, have power and inclination 
to pursue such sort of improvements to a beneficial re- 
sult, I shall have the satisfaction of believing myself to 
have been a remote instrument of the happiness of some 
of my fellow creatures. 



SSt> 



TATIT IT. 



Draught of a practical scheme of Edu- 
cation. 



CHAPTER I. 

Of gradation in steps and forms of instruction, ap- 
plied to the different stages of life. 

All things have gradation. The universe is replete 
with marks of this mode. Every system of substance 
and mode is marked with this character ; and tempo- 
ry works are not without it. All complex produc- 
tions necessarily suppose gradation. All organized bo- 
dies have their growth, prime, senescence, and dissolu- 
tion. There is not in the round of animated matter, 
6uch a thing as a system coming into light in a state of 
maturity. No animal, no vegetable, is known instan- 
taneously to emerge to a state of absolute perfection 
in all its parts and powers. Not only the operations 
of nature, but all intricate works of art require grada- 
tion to effectuate their accomplishment. Every great 
accomplishment is constituted of accessory advances 
from small beginnings. No complicate machine that 
men contrive, is finished without deliberate compari- 
sons deductions, and progressively regular classifica- 
tion of thoughts, by the confirmations of experiment. 
All schematized things have their gradual and pro- 
cessionary developement. The vegetable principle r<?- 



287 

quires the successive application of several varieties 
of nutriment according to the progressive variation of 
its texture and appetencies, in order to advance to 
germination. The animal requires milk at first, be- 
fore it is capable of converting harder matters to nour- 
ishment. And, afterwards when the parts are extend- 
ed and strengthened by consolidation of texture as 
well as by exercise, it is able to digest bread, and soon- 
er or later, meat also, The capacity of intelligence 
likewise is gradually enlarged : and that which at first 
comprehends and can detain but one simple idea, comes 
to be competent to the intricate operation of abstrac- 
tion, which comprises a variety of acts of the thinking 
agent, whereby at first comparing each ot a large num- 
ber of complex ideas with other, and considering them 
to coincide and agree in one of their simple compo- 
nents, though differing in all other parts, it makes this 
the representative of all those different ones, and keep- 
ing under its view this single idea not only, but also 
the idea of its representing all those and making a part 
of every one of them (in which it takes in at once ob- 
scure impression of each) and furthermore the idea of 
its relation to a determinate mark or articulate sign 
which it affixes to it as its constant representative, 
with an implicated reference to all those diverse par- 
ticular beings the ideas whereof this collectively re- 
presents by a common property or ingredient, it frames 
to itself that sort of simplified complex ideas which is 
called an abstract idea, and comes at what is called 
genera or kind; as universe, animal, man. Every 
important enterprise requires gradation to accomplish 
and bring about the end projected in it : as a war, an 
expedition, an embassy, a journey, a revolution of go- 
vernment ; the parts whereof successively coming into 
being, one cannot exist before the preceding one has 
existed, except the very first step in the undertaking, 
which as a link in the chain of causes (each part being 



28$ 

by recpirocal reference a cause and an effect of the 
preceding and succeeding one) may be the first im- 
pulsion of the principle of animation that awakens a 
motive to the purpose of that undertaking. Again; 
one part cannot take place before the other has pre- 
pared the way for it ; and each is considered the cause 
of the possibility of the other. 

Education likewise requires gradation. This is im- 
mediately deducible from the progressive nature of 
the human system itself, and of all its powers. The 
animal system progresses to a certain point, and then 
declines ; successively loses what it had successively 
gained ; and falls back to its original state. The pow- 
ers of mind may still continue to progress and to in- 
crease in the proportion of its enlargements, when the 
body has past the climax of its maturity, and begins w 
decay. Nay even while it verges to the threshhold of 
dissolution, the soul may reach accessions of know- 
ledge and habit. Education as well as any other de- 
liberate work, requires gradation. The compass of 
knowledge and habits the system can imbibe, cannot 
be superinduced at once, but must be clone in gradual 
succession, and progresses even to the remotest day of 
life. This gradation is twofold ; as it respects ar- 
rangement or train of subjects fit to be understood, to 
forma compass of knowledge and aptness ; and as it 
respects the exercises appropriate and competent to be 
used in order to attain that. The adaptation of both 
is to peculiarities of constitution and condition. I have 
heretofore distributed the work of education into five 
stages of operation, each distinguished in some mea- 
sure by the process fit to be pursued in it, but not bear* 
ing any invariable adaptation to the successive parts 
of the subjects 5 existence ; since on the one hand the 
adaptation of each of these designs, i. e. inducing right 
associations ; art of communication ; correct impres- 
sion of realities, mechanical movements in association, 



289 

and habits of virtuous movements, must be most pro- 
perly to the exigency of those subjects, since it is not 
every one that comes at the perfection of either in the 
early part of life, some neglecting to acquire the read- 
ing and even the speaking of their own language cor- 
rectly till years of maturity, and many, nay even the 
greatest part of the race fall short of a habit of virtue 
till the remote part of their lives, and too many, alas, 
never reach any thing that bears a close resemblance 
of it: and. on the other hand, the man, in every part of 
his course, is susceptible of impression by each of these 
parts, in kind, (although he is less so of that of the se- 
cond after the age of youtn) if we except some mecha- 
nic associate motions ; and indeed some of these may 
be induced in infancy. But to learn the art of rudi- 
mental articulation, no time is fitter than the early part 
of life, when the parts of the frame are pliant. Yet 
there are not any of th^se complicate sets of associa- 
tions that make up the arts, to be perfected in infancy ; 
but merely the primordial^, the rudimental grounds 
of some distinguished ones to be introduced. Yet ge- 
nerally speaking, mankind may be advanced in know- 
ledge and conceptions of realities (and indeed are so, 
insuperably to the concern of supervisors ;) in deter- 
mined combinations of ideas and emotions ; in the art 
of using articulate signs with propriety ; in moving se- 
veral, parts of their body voluntarily in conjunctive 
motion, as in trades and in formulary morality, in some 
degree or other, in all parts of their lift after they De- 
gin to have distinct perception : at le i- r the advance 
of these several parte of the work is alteroateafcd con- 
fusedly promiscuous, [shall tb:toff#n^ upon this oc- 
casion, make use of another •*" ♦ - j . subject 
matter of the work of education co;: "" ly tome 
conspicuous varieties of the ? ofm&^s 
life ; in doing which I shall co. « >n hat 
life as comprehending the scene ef-eve of tiiis 
35 



290 

business, which therefore I set under the denomina- 
tions, education of infants, education of you Hi, and 
education of persons farther advanced in hie ; of \\ hicK 
I shall speak in their order. These ages, infancy, 
youth, and manhood, I shall consider under different 
measures than what for the purposes of other specula- 
tions are usually employed ; and extend them from 
birth to the tenth or eleventh year ; from that to the 
twenty-second; and thence through tl e remainder of 
life. That portion of this business which I shall put 
under the appellation of infant education, is diversified 
by the several degrees of intellective capacity that in- 
tervene birth and the age often years. These degrees 
are various in different individuals. This variety de- 
pends on several causes, among which even the pecu- 
liarity of the animal constitution has some participa- 
tion. This compass contains the most critical varia- 
tions of treatment. The greatest and most effective 
modifications fall within the limits of this first period 
or stage of human life. It is a general truth, that with- 
in this small part of the natural extent of human ex- 
istence, from birth to the eleventh year, the intellectu- 
al part undergoes more revolutions and diversifying 
impressions than have place in any other stage or 
stages of life. To this may happen exceptions, but it 
is what is most generally toand to exist. The pheno- 
mena of these, give the strongest casts and mosjt last- 
ing discriminations to the first &nd chief faculties : and 
this is the reason why infant education is so much 
more nice than any other. Puberty puts a new aspect 
upon the system, and seems to renovate all its func- 
tions, as well mental as animal ; but it will generally 
be found upon examination, that indelible impressions 
are made anterior to diat, upon the percipient frame, 
that generally determine the predominating temper 
and turn of the thinking powers that prevails in all 
succeeding parts of education. The education of 



£91 

youth I consider to be that portion of our work which 
properly is commenced at this termination of infancy, 
and extended to the period when people are of fit age 
to provide, and wholly govern themselves. And after 
that, takes place the last part of education, wherein 
we are always our own tutors, whatever assistants we 
may have at our service. 

The propriety of a practical scheme of education 
consists in common utility. For this end, the fittest 
form is that of a series of succinct rules which should 
exhibit a synoptical view of what is essentially neces- 
sary to apply, and that in the gradual order in which 
it is practically appropriate. To lay down unexcep. 
tionabJe rules for the conduct of education, is difficult. 
The difficulty arises from these three causes. 1. Di- 
versity of constitutions, 2. Diversity of conditions. 
3. Diversity of customs, habits, and degrees of intel- 
lectual improvement in those people that have the su- 
perintendance of the education of the young. These 
diversities have brought about such a modification of 
this business, that an unexceptionable system of prac- 
ticable precepts for the thorough education of one hu- 
man creature, dated from its condition in respect to 
those causes, shall be as differeat from a system equal- 
ly adapted to finish the education of another human 
creature, as almost any two arts whatsoever, differ one 
from another. The iruth i«, in improving this art we 
must quit circumstance, and consider the human sys- 
tem as a blank unimpressed, and detached from all such 
influence. We are to consider human nature as a 
unit ; and in the modifying of this, we shall find there 
are certain invariable prescripts to be drawn from the 
laws of nature, which are uniformly applicable in this 
behalf on all parts of the globe ; to which even people 
of various manners may be allured, to the gradual coun- 
termine of the eccentric influence of their peculiarities 
of habit. For there are certain particulars wherein all 



29S 

human beings are one and the same thing : and there- 
fore are equal with one another. To have common 
utility, then, rules of this sort must be applicable to 
various cases. To be applicable to various cases, they 
must be universal. And if universal, they must be 
short. And this last requisite were a great excellence 
in any thing whatsoever to be put to practice; since 
the less the memory is encumbered with particulars, 
the more ready is an aptness in conformable move- 
ments. But one inconvenience that may be incident 
to this method, is that many ot the steps as important 
as any in the course ot our work, may be overlooked 
and left without any particular directory, and certain 
gaps, as it were, left in our strict train of operations 
and measures, wherein the pupil being without guide 
suffered to ramble at the beck of his natural impulses, 
may engender bad qualities and habits, unchecked and 
unobserved. In reference to this, the possibilities of 
these are properly from time to time taken into ac- 
count, and conformable provision of treatment collect- 
ed into the precepts that are given. Nothing however 
is more evident than that mankind must necessarily be 
advanced gradually in their education : that they must 
know some truths before they can know some other 
truths ; that they must go through some exercises be- 
fore they are competent to others. In fact, many re- 
petitions of the same motion are required to have place, 
before such a thing as habit can exist : and the main 
part of our acquests is made up of habits. It being lit- 
tle else at last but some habit, facility, aptness, of ei- 
ther thinking or motion, that all we labor at to qualify 
ourselves or others with, finally resolves itself into. 
For it is the habit of placing two or more ideas togeth- 
er and taking a view of them m com pari son as they 
relate one to another, that gives us that knowledge that 
is constantly useful to us It is a habit of thinking that 
puts us in possession of most of our opinions and per- 



293 

suasions of mind, consolatory or directing. Habit 
makes the essential part of the arts. Art itself is but 
a habit of the mind prescribing rules for the produc- 
tion of effects according to nicely observed tendencies 
and powers of things. And virtue is very essentially 
dependant on habit, if it does not principally consist 
in it So that finally it is little more than a bundle of 
habits we are contending for. in all our scrabble of edu- 
cation. Now, habit has a gradual rise. One degree 
of facility is produced by the first repetition of an ac- 
tion ; another degree by the second repetition ; and 
finally, the oftener it is repeated (within certain lim- 
its) the easier becomes the performance. Habit also 
is the main support of knowledge itself ; for that which 
breaks out as in the the transient corruscation of a me- 
teor, or like a flash of light, is of little use if it leave 
no trace of incidence or aptitude in the faculties by 
which it is realized, to disclose the like perception. 
A habit of comparing ideas together comes before ex- 
tensive knowledge in any branch or branches whatso j 
ever. 

So then education, rightly conducted, progresses gra- 
dually from the beginning to the finishing of it ; by a 
regular gradation in the steps by which it is conduct- 
ed, and in the forms of the measures used in superin 
during impressions and principles. What we can im- ,/ 

press by elegant articulate language at the age of twen- 
ty, we are fain to make use of a very different vehicle 
to express at the age of two years. The latter indee -" 
is not competent to apprehend the same extent of i 
by any medium of communication whatever, p A 

former is capable of comprehending: yet th >dea 

some things equally admissible to the uncterstr *s the , 

both, though not by the same means of con* * e re are 

simpler process must be used upon the i hidings of 

train of articulate determinate signs, w 1 ^eyance. A 

ther learned to distinguish, nor to ap ^ofant than a 

S5* /"<* he has nei- 

/ply to the ideas 



r 



§94 

they are usually made to stand for. Certain figures, 
colors, and proportions, may be conveyed to the minds 
of infants with as clear and strong impressions as those 
of adults are capable of, by shewing the perceptible 
subjects wherein these qualities are ; but not by de- 
scription made up of words. Also certain passions 
and emotions of mind can be represented very effectu- 
ally by exhibiting the connected visible associate mo- 
tions that seem originarily to accompany them, while 
yet artificial language is not comprehended: and thus 
moral ideas can be adumbrated gradually to the infant 
mind. But artificial language, besides being an in- 
strument of the conveyance of instruction, is of itself a 
great pursuit of education, and an important degree in 
our acquisitions; which requires a considerable ampli- 
fication of the capacity of infants, to compass, 



295 



CHAPTER II, 

Education of Infants. 

Since the mind is continually liable to receive 
ideas by impressions on its several senses by exterior 
; things, and has the power within itself to continue or 
stop any action of its own about these ideas, whereby 
other ideas are framed out of these ; it falls out that 
the infant gets a variety of ideas, and in fact almost 
of every sort except the most abstract, in spite of any 
confinement we can put upon the body. If this be so, 
the first thing that can be done to infants towards edu- 
cation, is not to supply them with original ideas, but 
to regulate the association of such as they have, and 
such as they have got independently of our interposi- 
tion. This is that which takes place first in our pro* 
cesses of education: the first recourse there is occa- 
sion to apply. Infancy is from birth to the age of ten 
years. This is the part of life I have hitherto called 
adolescency. Within this it is plain, no part of edu- 
cation can be completed: yet something may be done 
in advance of each, particularly the three nrst parts. 
The most may be effected in the regulating of associa- 
tions. In regulating these associations we cast the ra- 
dicals of moral principles. For, as some of the first 
of these associations are framed, the affections are 
cast for life, in a general or sortal bias regarding some 
sorts of objects, — and that which is called the ' ruling 
passion' is constituted One person is prevalently 
attached to fame ; has greater desire of fame than of 
any other object Some are governed by the desire of 



296 

niches: some, by that of dominion and ascendancy 
over others; some by that of sensual delights. 

It has been said to be a " delightful task to rear the 
tender thought;' 'to teach the young idea how to 
shoot f 7 '• to pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind ;" 
and indeed is pleasant to such as have first found or 
made their greatest happiness to consist in exercise of 
mind. To such as have, theirselves, no pleasure in 
study, it is not pleasant; for it requires intentional 
application ot mind first to know, and then to apply 
the principles upon which this art turns : and without 
a certain degree of improvement of mind, which de- 

fends on exercise of this sort, no sucii regulation can 
ave place; that is, no competent superintendance of 
the subject, and no pleasure in the contemplation of 
such end. Yet the multitude reverses this rule of 
estimation. Training their infants conformably to 
their vague ideas of education, or rather (to no ideas 
of it at all) to personal biases to their offspring's feel- 
ings, and to their own averseness to close voluntary 
thinking, they disrepute studious persons for teachers 
of their children, and the more airish and vacant- 
minded any one appears to be habitually, the better 
he is likely to succeed in getting a livelihood by such 
an occupation ; and respect too ; for tiiej reckon a 
sedate specuhtory person, one who being exercis'd in 
voluntary thinking whereby he is made competent to 
the very work that is important for him to attend in 
education, is not so communicative as many trtjters 
who please more by their sound than any thing uiey 
signify by it, to be a kind of satire on themselves, who 
shun such speculations and despise such habits: at 
least, as they take no delight in his society, they can- 
not be expected to be very easy in a joke that binds 
them to any permanent service. Therefore a person 
who loves learning and is given to much thinking, 
need not expect to get a very pleasant sustenance by 



297 

teaching children, either publicly or privately, for the 
bulk of civilized mankind: for they are the frolick- 
some, the loquacious, the versatile and the gay, who 
will constantly bear away the standard from him. 
Such being most like the multitude, the multitude will 
needs like them the best. There is too much fear of 
learning. I once heard an observing man seriously 
hold forth that 'a man of learning,' above ail others, 
ought never to be employed in a school." Yet these 
things are the very reverse of what ought to be. This 
is a critical piece of work, that requires skill and me- 
ditation; and cannot be put in a sure train without 
cultivation of mind. Therefore study and learning 
are absolutely indispensable in the managery of the 
education of infants. Indeed the business itself, of 
teaching, is delightsome. The forming of the mind, 
is pleasant. The inceptive treatment of the infant 
pupil, is of more consequence than people in general 
a?e apt to imagine. The first associations formed in 
the system, whether of ideas or muscular movement, 
in regard of their effect are the most tenacious, and 
hard to be superseded by others, for two reasons. 

The reasons of the tenacity and firmness of these 
first associations, are two : — First, because the parts 
are delicate, tender, susceptible, and in a state of grow- 
ing harder; so that when they become harder, retain- 
ing the same posture and movement they have been 
set agoing in, they are not so easily bent into any other 
sweep or mode. When once you get an associate 
movement establish 'din the delicate fibres of an infant, 
it is very hard to be superseded. Secondly, because 
there are no antecedant associations to alternate them, 
and by interposing an equal or ascendant aptitude, di- 
vert them in the way, from this one track they are 
trained to. The first motion any subject learns, is 
most natural to it, 1. e. it has the most pure and per- 
fect habit of, and is always most prone to. For, any 



293 

that is attempted to learn to it afterwards, will alwaya 
be a possibility of its sliding out of, into that original 
one of which it once had a habit. So that it will be 
difficult to supersede it by others of so perfect a habit 
as this. Whereas it is not so incident, and scarcely 
feasible for this subject to lapse, in its course, into 
other sorts of movements it never learned ; others 
which may exist in future, but never yet existed. Now 
this movement or mode is, in the system, nothing but 
certain fibres moving together; one fibre moving sim- 
ultaneously with certain other fibres, or in a catenary 
consecution, one depending upon the other; and that 
whether sensitive fibres or muscular fibres, i e whe- 
ther ideas be associated or muscular motions be asso- 
tiatad. Now upon this principle, which I think is pretty 
generally granted, that the first associations are the 
strongest and of greatest effect, I think we may as* 
sert that upon this part of education depend all other. 
This is the foundation of the succeeding parts, from 
which they necessarily take their whole essential char- 
acter, and are fashioned according as this is finished. 
So far from being no part of education at all, as too 
many of the multitude have persuaded themselves 
who deemed it impracticable to give a decided turn to 
the infant intellect, it is the most important part, of 
all the three. The whole substance of what this part 
includes, is 1, conducting the first associations, as those 
of certain substances and powers, causes and effects; 
and in fact we can go great lengths in moral ideas be- 
fore the eleventh year; by maintaining devout atten - 
tion and care, on this work, we may establish some 
most important and sublime moral principles within 
this period. This is not expected in the ordinary 
cours* of things, however: 2. Increasing knowledge 
and its materials: 3 # training the vocal organs to ar- 
ticulation, and coimectirij; certain ideas with such 
articulation that it may constitute determinate signs of 



299 

inward conceptions and feelings: 4, establishing hab- 
its of ceremonial virtue, in inuring such motions as 
conform to beneficient purposes : and 5, the introduc- 
ing of some of the principles of mechanic arts into the 
system, by practice of some essential parts of an asso- 
ciate movement used in them ;- as the motion of the 
fingers, fit for a musician ; motion of the arms and 
hands fit lor a shoemaker ; motions of the arms and 
body fit for a carpenter ; following designs, and trac- 
ing out objects of sight with the finger, chalk, pencil, 
fit for a painter. These things however trival they 
may seem to be, are as sure to make those arts pecu- 
liarly pleasing to those who go afterwards to practice 
them, and therefore to facilitate the mastery of them, 
as any cause is sure to produce its natural effect, 
And this, not merely because the practice of the mo- 
tions begets facility in them, but also because of the 
pleasure that is in their connection. Their association 
is with the first pleasures of life. They are not asso- 
ciated with the ideas of pain, labour, compulsion, re- 
sistence, servitude ;but are, in the first place, set out 
with the apparant view of recreation only. They 
stand in the first rank ; they have the first and there- 
fore the strongest connection with our ideas of pleasure. 
It is but a comparatively little way that we can go in 
either of these parts, towards their perfection, in this 
part of life; yet the magnitude of what we can efifect 
therein, is inversely proportionate. What little we can 
advance to do, has o;reat consequence It is the work of 
a foundation, on which a vast fabric is to rest. Those 
incidents and co-incidents that we slight, prove to be 
foundation-stones on which are to stand great pillars 
in the super-structure of active and social life. Their 
efficiency carries its influence far beyond the recollec- 
tion of them. The most of what we can do is in the 
first and third parts : Here we can work clearly, and 
finish some work as we go ; and enough to do too, that 



300 

is fatter for this season than any other. I shall throw 
down a few concise rules for the guide of such as un- 
dertake this business. I am not insensible of the dif- 
ficulty that attends determining upon such practical 
directions as are unexceptionably applicable to all 
cases that occur in education. I attempt nothing but 
what is most general ; that which, being what the laws 
of nature suggest as the fit treatment of a human 
creature according to the graduation pointed out by 
those laws, ought to be universal. The method I shall 
pursue is to set down a scale of short precepts or 
rules, upon the application and tendency of which, I 
shall interject some exegetical notes. Those of this 
kind which follow, I intend shall comprehend in close 
order, the essentials of what is necessary to do in the 
treatment of the human powers in this period. 

Rule I. Restrict the subject to simple and mitd nu- 
triment. 

This and some of the succeeding rules immediately 
concern health and animal constitution ; and be- 
long to that part which is call'd 'physical educa 
tion 9 in distinction from 'intellectual and moral.' 
But all these parts have a mutual and several con- 
cern with the common end of education in general. 
One of the moral precautions of this rule, is, that 
by too great stimulus the sensorium may not be 
overcharg'd with the violence of sensation, and 
the intenseness of its pleasure turn into pain and 
produce irregular and impetuous volitions. The 
application of this rule has place whenever the 
child is sustained without the breast; which in 
some instances is even from birth. It is appli- 
cable in all parts of this age. 



301 

Rule II. Give the body a due temperature > in regard 
to heat. 

In the application of this rul^e are two tilings to which 
we should specially consider ourselves directed, 
as implicated in it ,• i. e. to keep the head cool, 
and the feet and other extremities moderately 
warm ; which may be done by the effect of assue- 
iaction from the beginning, tempering the former 
to the ordinary vicissitudes of the atmosphere, and 
wrapping the latter in warm enclosures. This 
hinders not but that the feet may, by being ac- 
customed to an equal exposure with the face and 
hands, from their earliest infancy, (but the other 
parts of the body should be proportionally expos- 
ed) come to retain an equal temperature with the 
face and hands without breaking the constitution* 
Some of our northwestern tribes walk the snows 
with their naked feet. To keep the head cool, is 
more urgent. To do this, is to moderate the tem- 
perature of the blood by regulating the stomachic 
stimulus, and also to disuse warm wrappers, caps, 
napkins, &c. that confine and unduly warm the 
head and neck. 

Rule III. Use the body to exhilirating voluntary ex- 
ertion, with due limitation* 

The uses of this rule are to strengthen the frame, to 
facilitate motion by habit, to promote cheerfulness 
by dispendmg the accumulated power of volition, 
and to promote nutrition by assisting the natural 
motion of the animal machinery. Here we may 
very aptl^ begin those motions that are propitious 
to some of the arts ; if there be any particular 
trades we have a predilection for the pupil to be- 
come master of in future, whereof he is capable of 
imitating any of the movements, it is obvious they 

86 



302 

can never be more advantageously set out than 
now. 

Rule IV. Let the exercises he accompanied with clear- 
ness of perception, and freedom of thought. 

Hereby you lead the moral and mechanical associa- 
tions into a proper train. An assemblage of appli- 
cations, and desultory address, induce contusion 
and retard improvement. Observe also in apply- 
ing these, to give the subject freedom of examin- 
ing variety of substances by his senses. 

Rule V. Accustom all parts of the frame to those pos- 
tures nature put them in. 

Keep the back straight : this has great effect. Our 
western Indians lash their infants upon boards, 
and carry them on their backs, from birth, so fast 
bound that they cannot put their spine nor shoul- 
ders out of that posture. This they do for the 
beauty or dignity that belongs to the appearance 
of such a straight posture, which is always easy 
for them to preserve afterwards. Yet this vio- 
lence never appears to injure their constitutions. 
The natural position of the back, is straight ; yet 
hone is more apt to sway from that and settle in 
a bend, when accustomed thereto ever so little. 
The custom of the first stage of life, in this re- 
spect, is of irreversible consequence. I should 
recommend, by gentle confinement, to accustom 
the body to such a straight posture when young. 
It is agreeable to a healthy action of all parts of 
<he system % , preserving them in their natural 
places. Tight bandages are ruinous to the con* 
stitution. 



803 

Rule VI. Expose to fresh air, and habituate to cold. 

The Indians plunge their infants into cold water 
each morning after birth. These two rules im- 
mediately concern health of bod j. But there is 
this connection between the body and mind, that 
by rendering the former hale, we make the other 
strong and vigorous. 

Rule VII. Restrict the stomach to a regular limita- 
tion of the quantity ofalimental stimulus. 

This is founding spontaneous temperance, and a 
healthful constitution. 

Rule VIII. Keep the body dean, and the cloth that 
enwraps it regularly purified. 

Rule IX. Let the hours of refreshment, shifting of 
dress, sleeping, leaking, rising, and exposure to 
fresh air, be constant and regular as far as is 
practicable. 

ule X. Accompany gratifications with smiles in your 
countenance. 

:le XI. Let all gratifications follow quiet, supple- 
ness, and signs of reverence in the subject 

Seize those opportunities when it is quiet and free 
from impassioned agitations, to produce all its al- 
lowed gratifications, and fill it with pleasurable 
emotions; that they may not be catenated, in its 
ideas of causation, with malignant applications. 
The reverse practice inclines it to a habit of ex- 
pressing anger and grief on its natural infirmities, 
and on every pain and offence. 

Rule XII. Never let gratifications follow expres- 
sions of anger, rage, impassioned agitations of 
mind, in the subject. 




304 

This rule is applicable both early and late in in-; 
fancy. The reverse of this, obviously tends to the 
encouragement of a malignant disposition. Ne- 
ver give a child any gratification that it cries for, 
till such time as it is perfectly quiet. 

Rule XIII. Let few or no sounds that are signs or ex- 
pressions of anger, go into its ears. 

Let all be regular, tranquil, and serene, around it* 
Set before it specimens of the usual accompani- 
ments of cheerfulness, placidity, constancy, In- 
tegrity. 

Rule XIV. Let pain follow every vindictive exertion, 
such as squalling by virtue of resentful emotions, 
or even from slight pain. 

Rule XV. Rightly connect the ideas of effects and re- 
sults, with those of their proper substantive caus- 
es, by shewing. 

This is a great part of the business th&t concerns 
and regulates early associations. 

Rule XVI. Be cautious of fixedly associating the 
ideas of pleasure or pain ivith those of objects 
whose degrees change the effects, and operate con- 
irary ones. 

Fire, in one degree of its efficiency, produces j)lea- 
sure by way of its warmth and lustre: in another 
degree of it, it produces pain by its heat and daze. 

Rule XVII. Accompany your commands with an as- 
pect that by way of usual association, is indica- 
tive of the idea of dignity. 

Rule XVIII. Accompany your advice, counsel, ex 
hortation, with the indexes of affection. 






305 

Rule XIX. Let your approbation and what follows 
your acquiescence, be attended with the indication 
of serene pleasure. 

This insinuates a persuasion in the child, that your 
happiness stands connected with its own welfare. 

Rule XX. Never threaten cruelty nor severity of pu- 
nishment where any other expedient is better 
adapted to the end. 

Rule XXL Let punishment strictly follow what de- 
serves it, when it is threatened. 

Rule XX [[ Make one corporeal punishment suffice for 
the breaking up of one bad habit, so far as that sort 
of punishment will serve. 

Rule XXI II. Put the child to trials of attention, by 
urging repetition of ideas, or staking some opta- 
ble desideratum with some one particular attain- 
ment of that sort. 

As counting out a thousand needles or wafers, and 
'assorting them according to each distinguished 
\arietj. 

Rule XXIV. Never give it any thing it importunes 
for. 

Short-sighted indeed is that person who does not 
perceive that it is learning children to importune, 
to grant them gratifications for importunity ; and 
that repeatedly granting them with reluctance 
what they have a while importuned for, is actual- 
ly alluring and training them to the business of 
teasing. 

Rule XXV. Exercise it in comparing, compounding , 
and other operations of intellect* 

S6* 



,806 

Rule XXVI. In order to this, train appropriately the, 
imitative faculty, and that by the alluring re- 
course of such accompaniments as are universally 
indicative of pleasurable emotions, and complacent 
views of an intent mind. 

Rule XXVII. Let the first specimens of articulation 
you exhibit for its imitation, be distinct and 
proper. 

Children whose organs are not defective or impeded, 
will as soon habituate the imitation of such, so. 
far as it is voluntary, as of corrupt ones. 

Rule XXV 1 1 1. Effectually interdict its requesting 
that which it is not fit or feasible to grant. 

Asking for any thing, increases the desire of it : and 
this as naturally as the repeating of any action 
produces habit. For the request is a voluntary 
action of which the desire makes a part, which 
by being made habitual, is more incident ; and the 
repeated perception of the want of the desired ob- 
ject and of the possibility of attaining to it, (which 
involve the repetition of the idea of that object it- 
self or thing requested) naturally making the sub- 
ject more sensible to the privation, increases the 
desire. 

Rule XXIX. To imprint the names of things, and 
rightly connect them, present and exhibit to their 
proper senses the beings they are put for. 

This is useful, not only to associate the names with 
the distinct archetypes, but to supply clear and 
distinct ideas of the beings. In the want of the 
substances themselves, or when they are not so 
easily accessible to perception, we advantageous- 
ly use miniature prints of them for this purpose. 

Rui e XXX. Jiccompany the names of things with 
slieiving true joints or models of them, when they 






so? 

are to be had ; in other cases with sembling or 
shewing the uses of them. 
Rule XXX I. Impress upon its sense and memory the 
elementary characters of your native language. 

Rule XXXI 1. Join the precise sound of every letter 
to the figure of it, in the perception of the pupil. 
Several repetitions of an alphabet are generally ne- 
cessary, with this simultaneous pronunciation 
very cl^ar and emphafical, of the appropriate 
sound of each letter as it is shewn for the child's 
imitation, before any permanency can be given to 
such connection. 

Iule XXXITI. Lead the discerning power to the pe- 
culiar discrimination of every letter whereby it 
varies from others ; and associate this discrimi* 
nation with that application of sound. 

The application of this rule is not without embar- 
rassment. The power of discernment has very 
different degrees in different subjects. For a ge- 
neral method, I know of none better than to vari- 
ously repeat these ideas, i. e. preserve the uni- 
formity of sound and figure, with a change of all oth- 
er accompaniments in their assemblage of associa- 
tions, — when the characters shall be exhibited and 
named in all consistent variety of positions, trains, 
and tribes. 

Rule XXXIV. Give the subject tasks of drawing, 
from natural and artificial models as soon as it 
can work its fingers to the grasp and carriage of 
a pencil. 
It is recommendable, as soon as it can retain in me- 
mory the distinct forms of the letters, with their 
names, to task it to draw these forms with a pen- 
cil or otherwise, to their names: nothing tends 



308 

more to rivet their distinctions in the memery, and 
the association of the names with them. 

Rule XXXV. Teach it to read. 

In this is comprised the spelling of words, and giv- 
ing them their proper enunciation and arrange- 
ment ; and they both should be united in a task ; 
as spelling a sentence and then giving it its regu- 
lar utterance without spelling. 

Rule XXXVI. Teach it to lorite. 

In this is essentially included the proper grasp and 
wielding of a pen. To teach to draftv characters 
with a pencil or finger, is inadequate to this. 

Rule XXXVII. Teach it the fundamental rides of 
arithmetic ; and give it time to comprehend the 
reason of them* 

The chief utility of this at this period, is to call into 
exercise the faculty of reasoning. 
Rule XXXVIII. In application of the three preced- 
ing rules, send the subject to a public school, if 
such be established upon pure republican piinci- 
pies and judiciously conducted : otherwise let its 
education be conducted at home. But whether 
you send it from home to a public or private 
school, or cany on the wo k altogether at home, 
fail not to watch with so utinous supe vision the 
progress of the work ; encoiveige and stimulate to 
apply its powers and thoughts a p oper and sue* 
cessful way, acco' ding to a judicious plan of your 
own; and co operate with good teachers in their 
management of this business. 

Rule XXXIX. Never speak contemptuously or dimi- 
nutively of a teacher, before a child ; nor of the 
profession in general. 



309 

Rule XL* Never speak sarcastically of any neighbor 
or stranger, in presence of a child. 

Rule XLI. Impress the meanings of abstract words, 
by simpler words previously understood. 

Rule XLI I. Teach the abstract meaning of those ge* 
neral marks and appendages by which words are 
diversified. 

Rule XLIIL As soon as the child can understand 
common language, accustom it to a due freedom 
of conversive intercourse with yourself: let this 
intercourse be characterised by decency, truth, 
liberality, candour, and moderation. 

Iule XLIV. Talk pathetically to it of the powers 
and moral relations of its actions. r disclose your 
feelings in the consequence of them. 

Rule XL V. Teach it moral reasoning; excite rea- 
soning in moral ideas. 

This rule may be effectually applicable after the 
ninth year. 

Rule XLVI. Indulge no unreasonable appetite or 
habit, within its notice. 

Rule XLVI I. Never chastise a child for what it does 
by mishap or compulsion: although you may 
chastise it for its heedlessness, yet let it be known 
that it is merely for its heedlessness and not for 
what falls out by it. 

Rule XLVIIL Let the pupil fully into the reasons 
wherefore his constraint to conform to certain 
measures is, as soon as he is capable of moral 
reasoning ; but do not relax this constraint in 
the least, oh this account. 



310 

Rule XL1X. Be cautions of positively accusing a 
child of any thing you abhor, without having 
knowledge of its guilt ; and never peremptorily 
charge it with a fault it denies, without conclu- 
sive evidence that it is guilty of it: otherwise, if 
it be hi fact clear, you prejudice the child against 
yourself and bring on in it a slight of vo ity* 

Rule L. Never promised child any thing which you 
do not seriously intend punctually to perform. 

Rule LI. Never flatter it with the expectation of 
things not in the highest degree probable. 
For want of observance of these two foregoing 
rules, many pupils are injured by tantalizing. 
They get a habit of cherishing vain hopes of vile 
goods of fortune; which drags down the mind to 
a very scanty circuit of speculation, and pre- 
pares it for base pursuits. 

Rule LII. Open not upon its mind any splendid views 
of future life that seem to evolve very desirable 
improvements of condition, even if they appear to 
yourself ever so probable. 

Futurity exists not. Many young; persons from the 
age of nine to twelve, are led into very delusive 
reveries that involve them in distracting and ruin- 
ous speculations, the issue whereof is but to sour 
their tempers and blast the genial germs of gra- 
titude and benevolence in their hearts; which 
even sometimes suppresses natural affection it- 
self. Never raise any expectation of this kind, 
otherwise than as a regular consequence of dili- 
gence and temperance: such illusions seldom fail 
to bring about disastrous reverses in their train* 
of reflection. 
Rule LI II. Cordially acquiesce with the tyro in any 
recourse of its own original invention^ if it tend to 
more usefulness than wast*. 



311 

Hereby you encourage in the most endearing antj. 
at the same time innocent manner, the liveliest 
and noblest exertions of intellect. 

Rule LIV. Be cautious of exemplifying the association 
of the pleasures of wit with slander, zvithin the no- 
tice of the pupil. 

Rule LV. Keep the subject clear and aloof from the 
extravagances of fashionable companies herding 
together upon the celebration of nugatory or bale- 
fid manners, till long after the termination of in- 
fancy. 

Rule LVI. In application of those rules that imme- 
diately regard the perfecting of the particular 
faculties and functions of intellect, pursue the 
same course as in giving habit to any mechanic 
function ; u e, practical repetition of exertions^ 
which is the universal access to all ascendancy that 
comes by habit. 

Rule LVII. In order to associate pleasure with the 
pursuits of intellectual improvement, keep up an 
example of the use of books, and accustom your- 
self to speak of their entertainment. 

Rule LVIII. Insinuate a proper estimate of books, by 
example of a choice regard and car fid use of 
them. 



312 



CHAPTER III. 

Education of youth* 

The age of youth I call that season of life which, 
commencing after the tenth year, supposes some of the 
governing associations in the system, whether of ideas 
or other movements, to be formed ; and some little ad- 
vance made by the child in the other parts of educa- 
tion, especially in articulation, in the knowledge of 
things, and in ceremonial morality. This is a general 
account of civilized society's proceeding ; — what takes 
place in the greatest number of individual instances. 
I extend the age of youth to the twenty-second year 
of life, being that which civilized communities have 
fixed as the bound of minority, whereat their laws set 
their members free from the control of parents and 
guardians, as the most agreeable to nature. From the 
age of 10 years, then, to the age of 21, takes place the 
scene of that stage of education which is called the 
education of youth. Truly some attain discretion 
sooner than others, and seem to be entirely fit to go- 
vern themselves long before that period ; but this limit 
is that which has the most general adaptation to reali- 
ty. The education of youth may be as laborious and 
trying in some parts, as the education of infants : but. 
not so consequential ; for it is easier for manhood to 
supercede the impressions of youth, than youth those 
of infancy. It is easier in men's education of them- 
selves to correct the errors of the education of youth, 
than in the education of youth to correct those of the 
first sta^e cf education ; for there be those- impressions 



313 

incident to and inseparable from infant education, that 
seem to be insuperable and carry their effects to the 
last of our existence, though we can in no wise recol- 
lect the impressions themselves. Many of the same 
precepts are appropriate here as are fit for the preced- 
ing part, though applied in a different extent. We 
tread the same round, in part; but finish some of that 
work whereof the capacity of infants admits only of 
a partial advance. In this" period takes place the pro- 
priety of some variation in the treatment of the two 
sexes, in the carrying on of this work. But this is 
not of that measure that some would have it. The 
education of the female and male must in some degree 
vary, of course, in conformity to the different parts 
they are to act in life; but in the absolute extent of 
erudition, and quantity of accessions in acquired ex- 
cellence, I think they should not stand materially 
rt. Some have maintained an opinion, that 'girls 
ought not to have so learned an education as boysS 
Upon what principle they ground this persuasion I 
know not unless it be the supposition that girls are 
prone to make a dangerous use of learning: for other- 
wise why this premonition against giving girls as much 
help of erudition to enlarge and enrich their under- 
standings, as boys? Or do they mean by learning, or 
learned education, the extent and number of those 
T)?* -ticular arts and sciences that are practically em- 
ployed in subsistence, and make professional charac- 
ters? For it is admitted girls have no need to learn* 
and ought not to spend their time (which might be 
employed upon something mote elevating and improv- 
ing) to learn geometry, surveying, and navigation; 
because these arts and sciences are opposite to their 
commonly design'd ways of living, in the civilized 
world at large: and since they are not what they are 
usually called to practice, to confine their thoughts to 
them were keeping them out of that which might more 
27 



apa 



I 



314 

profitably elevate and liberally replenish their minds 
with such things as are a source of comfort and de- 
light, as well as practical utility in social life. But 
the female is not to be idle, nor employed about 
meaner themes than those. 

They are indeed during their lives to be employed 
mostly in household affairs, but it is not only fit that 
they be possessed of such intellectual goods as afford 
as high entertainment as the opposite sex attain to, 
and the highest enjoyment any of us is capable of, 
but particularly that they have the skill of educating 
children correctly. In the name of common sense, is 
not the femab soul of as much value as that of the 
male? Indeed there is no need of girls' being puncti- 
liously proficient in several practical portions of science 
which none but males are wont to put into use, such 
as those of surveying, navigation, practical astronomy, 
mechanics, &c. ; buHheir faculties are worthy of as high 
cultivation as those of the male. It is from the im- 
provement of the faculties of the soul, that our greatest 
happiness, our chief good, results. All cultivation of 
mind subserves the advance of our perfection as intelli- 
gent and passive beings. To improve these faculties, as 
well as to store with what may be serviceable to enter- 
tainment or action we keep the girl in exercises of gram- 
mar, arithmetic, geography, logic, or whatever other use* 
ful sorts ol knowledge we happen to have the opportuni- 
ty and materials to draw her notice to : for by exercise, 
the faculties are improved. It is use and application that 
strengthens them. Hereby the capacity is enlarged, 
and the agent made susceptible of that pleasure that 
pertains to contemplation, meditation, and abstaction. 
Study exalts the human mind to this point, whether in 
the female sex or male. What time the boy takes up 
in perfecting himself in certain arts and sciences that 
are of a masculine appropriation, the girl is consistent 
)y put to needlework, sewing, or to studies of a mora 



315 

general and entertaining nature than the boy is pursu- 
ing, that embellish the mind with more engaging en- 
dowments which tend to diffuse animating charms over 
the scene of social intercourse. And here, although 
women cannot be so great mathematicians and artists, 
yet they have a chance to be greater moralists, if their 
thoughts be conducted into this track early, while the 
opposite sex is taken up with different views. And if 
there be many arts and many compasses of science 
which men ought properly to be more thoroughly ver- 
sed in than women, to whom they are not necessary as 
lying out of the way of the concernment of their des- ' 
tined conditions in life ; it does not follow that there- 
fore 'girls ought not to have so learned an education as 
boys ;' that they ought not to have so much learning, 
so great a quantity of learning as boys ; — for the ex- 
tent of erudition I don't conceive is any where dange- 
rous to them, nor with them, more than the other The 
study of solid science humanizes, while it not only li- 
beralizes their views, but sets them above vanity. The 
study of solid science is equally important to estab- 
lish their worth; and perhaps here, it is more influen- 
tial abroad. I don't think it would injure a female to 
be possesed of the whole circle of sciences. 

The first years of this age are the most critical part 
of it. A peculiar susceptibility of moral and intel- 
lectual biases, is assignable to this conjuncture. This 
seems to be a time of life when the power of voluntary 
thinking having got the start of the animal powers, a 
trifle is able to turn the superflux into a particular 
course. This, I say, is accumulation of a particular 
variety of sensorial power, whose force like the mo- 
mentum of an overswelling body of waters, carries it 
irresistibly forward into the first furrow into which it 
finds a vent. Hence the taste is wont to be fixed at 
this juncture, and tracks of genius struck out, that are 
kept in eye through life. All this depends very much 



316 

on what has taken effect in infancy. From the accu- 
mulation of power of voluntary thinking, and also sen- 
sitive, when there not having existed any accountabil- 
ity for any plans of active life, nor any great cares 
nor pleasures, the energy hereof has not had its re- 
course of exhaustion, it is here liable to take a long 
and weighty sweep. And this portentous calm in life, 
this spell, this boding intemperature in the intellectual 
region, is the original of incalculable vanagations in 
the scenes of moral and sensitive life, both painful and 
pleasurable; and is of great moment to be husbanded 
in the most careful manner, and filled up with judi- 
cious inculcations. All the processes of education can 
be advanced in this age of life. All manner of asso- 
ciation, knowledge and opinion, language, and almost 
every art, may get an important degree. The first 
and chief ideas we ought to impress by strong associ- 
ation, are implied in these three abstracted ones, 
causality, obligation, and progression. These are what 
we should labour to establishjirsf, in this stage, in the 
department of associations. The following rules com- 
prise the principal of what is necessary to do in edu- 
cation of youth. 

Rule I. Teach the youth penmanship, grammar, arith- 
metic, and geography. 

In application of this rule, follow rule thirty-eighth 
in education of infants ; and observe the general 
recourse of repetition of impressions, and associa- 
tion of due pleasure with them. Teach universal 
grammar as soon as the subject is able to appre- 
hend its maxims. 

Rule II. Having in infancy impressed it taith a re* 
verential regard of your own person, shew the 
youth by exemplification that you respect its tutor 
as a brother, and persuade it that you reckon it as 




317 

ortant to enforce obedience, respect, and sub" 
mission, to one as to the other. 

Rule III. Never put a young scholar immediately up- 
on a task which he has been repeatedly baffled in 
attempting to get the mastery of ; since every new 
trial adds a disagreeable association that, being 
painful, proves a clog that impedes not only this 
particular undertaking, but casts a disparage- 
ment upon study in general. 

Rule IV. Let the pupil carefully and legibly write 
down what it is to commit to memory. 

One such exercise is equivalent to a dozen recita- 
tions, in efficacy of making the matter of the theme 
familiar. 

jle V. Freely answer all its serious inquiries, whe 
ther in natural, moral, or rational philosophy. 
Answer it sincerely and candidly too, in such 
words as it can understand, giving it all the satis- 
faction it is able to receive by such communica- 
tion $ for curiosity ought not by any means to be 
repressed, but under proper direction stimulated, 
it being the vital principle of all scientific profi- 
ciency. 

The application of this rule must have this qualifi- 
cation,— that it be protracted till such age as 
seems to indicate capacity to apprehend their 
simplest and most expressive answers ; till which 
time the loquacity of youth's inquisitiveness should 
be circumscribed, and they taught silent musing. 
This will have good fruits in them. 

Rule VI. Set an example of constancy : let this be im- 
pressive : there is no other way to substantiate 
the principle of stability but to exhibit an even* 
ness of conduct to the tyro's sensitive observation 
that, acting on the imitative faculty in association 
S7* 



318 

with the pleasurable ideas of natural affection, fa* 
voritism, and recollected beneficence, forces itself 
to his approbation. 

Rule VII. Give it rousing representations of what it 
is progressing to, in a course of nature modified 
by its voluntary actions. 

ItexE VIII. Let one corporeal chastisement be sufficient 
and effectual, so far as any thing of that kind 
serves the turn to dissuade from a bad course : in 
order to this, it must be distinguished by the fol- 
lowing circumstances: 1. That it be sufficiently 
painful j Q. That it be applied at the proper con- 
juncture, and the sufferer made to perceive that 
it is done for that which deserved it ; S. That it 
be attended by solemnity of preliminary examina- 
tion, and ceremonials that favor reflection. 

Rule IX. Teach it sorts of signs ; and the classifica- 
tion, derivation, and declining of words. 

Rule X. StGre it with abstract ideas in moral modes 
and relations. 

This enables to reason on such themes: dignifies, 
and substantially entertains. 

Rule XI. In training the reasoning power, give the 
pupil time and scope to open its views, and rather 
allure than compel. 

Uule XII. Give the youth opportunity to freely gra- 
tify its curiosity by examining the usual ways of 
society abroad, where it is not exposed to ruinous 
temptations; and afterwards faithfully explain 
io it the novel appearances that have come Under 
its view. 

These things associate pleasure with knowledge ; 
make tjie pupil have pleasure in knowledge, and 



319 

pleasure in the society of yourself in the character 
of its teacher- 

Rule X1IL Teach it natural history. 

Rule XIV. In teaching the sublime arts, as poetry or 
oratory, let the pupil, on committing model* to his 
memory, throw off the expression and clothe the 
ideas in his own ; and registering these, recite 
them afterieards in answer to a suggestion of each 
clause of the propounded task. 

Rule XV. Give the girl equal improvement of mind 
with tie boy. 

Rule X^I- Teach them the elements of astronomy, to* 
gfc, and geometry. 
Apply rule xxxviii of the education of infants. 

R»le XVII. Fix the boy's animal love to a single ob- 
ject, and convert it to sentimental love* 

Represent the object in an attracting light. No mat- 
ter if the object be hypothetical, so that he be per* 
suaded it is real, and it be so conformed to nature 
that it be constituted of nothing over and above 
what he can some future day easily find in real 
existence ; its attributes no way transcending 
what is frequent in reality. Rousseau remarked 
that ' a young man is either in love or is a debau- 
chee :' and indeed we shall do better to direct, 
qualify, improve, and facilitate, the course of na- 
ture than attempt to repress it. But the predo- 
minating attractions o( this object are to be moral 
and intellectual 

Rule XVIII. Transfer the energy ofthegirVs ani- 
mal love to moral and sentimental beauty. 
In order to effectuate this, we must endeavor to as- 
sociate more pleasure, i. e. the idea of more 
prevailing pleasure, ivith such beauty, than is 



S2« 

joined to other, sensible objects that act as excite-- 
ments to animal love, make such beauty more 
pleasing than sensible beauty, which can only be 
done by its having a stronger and wider intervo- 
lution with pleasurable ideas. 

Hulb XIX. Talk pathetically and argumentatively to 
the girl of the danger, the fatal consequences of 
unguarded and promiscuous conjunctions ; and 
of the advantages, the happiness, the safety, the 
Utility, of an instituted union ivith zn individual* 

Rule XX. Describe and point out to her contempla- 
tion an attracting and virtuous individual ; (not 
a real one who is a neighbor, lest it encumhor with 
solicitude and subject to disappointments. ) 
It will not frustrate this design for them to be sensi- 
ble in the advance of it, that this object, as such 
particularly denominated and circumstanced on*, 
is fictitious instead of being real ; so that this en* 
ergy is collected and habituated to act on a deter- 
minate point, directed by proper qualifications of 
such object. 

RuleXXT. In application of the three preceding rules, 
avoid repressing sympathy, but deduce to her the 
duty of a candid, pacific, honorable, free liberal, 
reasonable procedure, towards those of the oppo- 
site sea:; justly disclose the malignity of tarda- 
lism, and lay open the odious nature of coquetry. 
Let sympathy (by refining reason) be cultivated, 
not repressed* 

Rule XXII Talk persuasively to both tlie boy and the 
girl, of the fitness, the importance, the urgency, 
and the agreeableness to the moral and physical 
laws of nature, of the connubial compact, a faith- 
fid and permanent concentration of the affection 
in an individual. 



. 



. 



321 

Rule XXIII. Collaterally herewith, a*gue the preli- 
minaries of. securing a station commanding the 
means of comfortable living. 
These things allure them to industry and diligence* 
keep their thoughts from dissipation, and from ex- 
travagant flights of vague concupiscence. 

Rule XXIV. Teach them the foundation of morality $ 
the reason of all duties : explain apologues, inu- 
endoes, parables, and fables, to insinuate the spi- 
rit of valuable dogmas, and practical maxims im- 
portant to put into use. 

ule XXV. Open to the aspiring mind the most en* 
gaging traits of scientific structures ; lead it to 
the most attractive beauties of themoral world. 

Rule XXVI. Talk to them of what their train of vo- 
luntary conduct is carrying them to, and how your 
own experience stands related to it. 

Rule XXXVII. Speak pathetically of what their pa- 
rents have undergone on their account, and with 
what views ; and what objects of hope sustained 
them therein. 

Rule XXVIII. Regularly appropriate their time to 
properly distributed employments dive* sified with 
intervals of meditation ; and let them be constant- 
ly and usefully busy. 

Rule XXIX. Disallow their close pursuit of tracts of 
speculation their condition does not admit them 
to put into actual use. 

Rule XXX. Cordially befriend them in such themes 
of their choice as be allowable. 

Rule XXXI. Give the boy one useful mechanic art a& 
least, be his external condition what it may ; and 
give the girl the complex art of housewifely. 



332 

This hinders not giving them sublime arts, anchsci- 
ence that is to form what are called professions in 
life, when your condition admits of it, 

Rule XXXII. Talk of your genuine sentiments on 
morals to others in their presence. 

Rule XXXIII. Express to them personally those same 
sentiments at some other opportunity. 

Hereby they will be likely to be confirmed. 

Rule XXXIV. Keep them in their leading strings til. 
twenty-one years of age; yet through the four las 
of those years, let them be rather friends and com- 
panions to you than servants : and let them be so 
well habitated to compliance that it is pleasure to 
comply, and having their work set out and the day 
properly divided, that they go without the least com* 
pulsion or direction, to finish it faithfully. In the 
meanwhile talk familiarly and instructively to them 
on topics important for them to contemplate, with 
the same freedom as to any equal. 

Rule XXXV. Set before them an example of all the 
virtues. 

The best way to keep them clear of the influence of 
bad example without depriving them of an accu- 
rate knowledge of the world, is to counteract fo- 
reign example by your own. 

Rule XXXVI, Practice wary admonition to direct 
them in the forming of friendship and other weigh* 
ty connections in civil intercourse, and to shape 
their habitual plans to rectitude. 

In a strict adherence to the foregoing rules I think 
we shall find a very sure way to bring forward the 
young to a maturity of discretion, and prepare them 
for usefulness, honor, virtue. It may be objected the 



323 

diversity of the human character frustrates their use ; 
since one is capable at the age often, of what another 
is to be initiated in at eighteen. 

Answer: — These rules are not conformed to the 
results of custom and prescription: let children m 
general be trained precisely under all these rules of 
treatment, according to the exact extent of their im- 
port, from birth to the age of twenty-one years; and 
1 presume that at the latter period, their diversity in 
temper and active powera, will Hot be great 



i 



324 



CHAPTER IV. 

Education of people more advanced in life. 

Therf. is a time when youth is swallowed up in the 
prime of men's parts and the climax of their age. 
There is a time ot life when youth and childhood being 
left behind, all their privileges and prospects being 
cassated, a different state of things supervenes. There 
comes a day in the progress of man's life, when all 
the scenes of infancy and youth having successively 
vanished and gone by, he shakes off all yokes and res- 
traints of parents, tutors, nurses, guardians, and sets 
up for his own guide. There is a season of life which 
is called manhood : but this word has been applied by 
some, to that which by another word is pubertv, and 
virility, the period when the species is capable of gen- 
eration, commonly limited at the fourteenth year. 
The consideration I have had of this matter, has su- 

Eerseded this arrangement for another wherein I 
ad only in view the adaptation of the several stages 
of education, which depends on the graduation, not of 
the animal powers, but of the intellectual. And of 
this we can come at no perfect unexceptionable stan- 
dard, because nature seems to have made some little 
diversity in that department of the human constitu- 
tion whereon the intellectual capacity depends, where- 
by we come into the world with different powers of 
mind (in the passive sense of the word) which the 
same proceeding will carry to different and unequal 
acquests in the same times. We can approximate it 
fay some general measure of distribution, to which 



825 

none seems to have a more conspicuous propinquity 
than that which the most refined governments have 
bounded by the termination of pupilage and minority. 
This part of education, that is, of such as having ad- 
vanced beyond this point, are properly men and wo- 
men, or the consistent depositaries and suscipients of 
self-government, is usually conducted by the persons 
themselves who are the subjects of its effects, — who 
are in some sense both agents and objects: since per- 
sons having no visible superior to controul their pri- 
vate conduct, must in propriety nave the charge of the 
arrangement of those measures and processes where- 
by they are advanced in knowledge, aptness, and art. 
The capital desiderata the scope of this part tempo- 
rally terminates in, i. e. the things men generally seek 
to promote themselves in by education, are a livelihood 
independent of charity; knowledge of the world; 
ease from laborious exertions of invention and bodi* 
]y strength to accomplish the necessary purposes of 
life ; and extension and refinement of their absolute 
enjoyment. To live independently of the charity of 
others ; to live easy ; to be acquianted with the world ; 
and to live happy;— these four pursuits are those 
which comprehend whatsoever men reckon upon as 
being their desired investiture, in the immediate aim 
of their enterprize of education. 

1. To live independently of charity, the main 
chance is to establish and habituate some sure expedi- 
ents to compass the materials of sustenance ; as a me- 
chanic art, or something else that can bestead them in 
this behalf. To settle themselves into fixed stations 
is a great adminicle, in tins way, which very few de- 
crj. A fixed tenable station securing opportunity to 
carry on the business of life, is an important desider- 
atum with all who set out to live honestly and honour- 
ably without having recourse to solicitations of alms 
or tavor. Education discovers these expedients* and 
&8 



326 

gives the power to use them successfully : and this is 
no mean pursuit neither ; for he that depends on the 
charity of mankind, is in danger of falling short of 
the means of life, if not of life itself 

2. Another thing men drive at, is knowledge of the 
world ; by which is intended knowledge of things 
that are in the world ; whether it be of the actions of 
men, and the operations and revolutions in general that 
are going forward there; — or the knowledge or the 
make and powers of animals, vegetables, and minerals, 
that make a part of it ; or that of the affections of 
substances in general. There is a knowledge of the 
world that is not commendable to be advanced in the 
young : and is no way delectable to the considerate, 
even though it may be usetul : and that is a know- 
ledge of its vanities and vices ; the inventions of the 
malignant, the votuptuous and the idle. Yet to know 
even the corruptions of the world, their rise and ends, 
is necessary in order to avoid them, to such as have the 
direction of their own course through life. But a 
general indubious acquaintance with the realities 
around us, is obviously useful in every point of our 
agency, and has a utility that is acknowledged on all 
hands. 

3. In the third place men think by education to get 
ease from laborious and racking eflbrts of mind and 
body to bring about those effects that are indispensable 
in the preservation of life. In this view all those ma- 
chines that are used about the arts, and various subtly 
contrived methods of bringing about what required 
much labour of body or casting about of mind, have 
their origin. Which though requiring extraordinary 
exertions of mind, and perhaps* body too, to complete 
them, yet being done to get rid of the necessity of 
them, this labour is lightened by that consideration : 
men being content to go through great hardships in 
the present moment, tor the sake of being entirely at 



327 

^ase from labour in future. Fame, however, the idea 
of applause, is a great stimulant to inventions. More- 
over, this pursuit may be carried to excess. These 
cash ig arts may be carried to excess; so far to excess 
as to shorten our usual length of life ;— for stong vo- 
luntary exertion prolongs life 

4 with regard to the extension and refinement of 
real enjoyment, although it properly expresses the ap- 
proximation to the true end of education, and is in fact 
the natural tendency of it when rightly plotted and 
conducted ; yet the multitude have a:i imaginative 
idea of this refinement and extension. 

Many possess not a true idea of what it really con- 
sists in, nor of what the true means to it really consist 
in : still such as are governed by such an object to 
education, are actuated by a correct motive, however 
they may be deluded about the medium. 

That men agree in what they conceive to constitute 
their chief good, is not to be expected. It requires a 
sublimely abstract view, to come at the indubitable 
perspective of that which is the greatest happiness of 
the whole race, which every individual must agree ia 
and find his chief enjoyment consists in. 

To these, men are wont to make education an ac- 
cess, or general applicative or mean. Which are in 
fact but intermediate objects, none being perfectly 
satisfied short of the ultimate end, consummate enjoy- 
ment, of which hope supplies them with the substi- 
ute. 

c; Hope springs eternal in the human breast, 
Man never is, bat always to be blest. " 

Yet these answer to make up men's common hap- 
piness in this world. The idea of increasing good or 
advantage, implies a reference to things future; and 
this hope is essential to their enjoyment in life. All 
the passions are (in nature) necessary to our enjoy- 



328 

inent, such as we are; their contemperation necessary 
to the security and increase of that enjoyment. The 
want of such contemperation necessarily brings de- 
generacy of it, and in procession, complete misery. 
Whatever exceptions may be made of several of those 
sagacious and imitative brutes which are brought to 
acquire several simple arts, and discover progressive 
improvement under a careful culture ; it is obviously 
a general truth that in the ordinary course of things 
a brute arrives, in a very short time after coming into 
the world, at a point of perfection which he cannot 
exceed, in amplitude of his capacity: although he 
may have a succession of noval appearances on his 
sensory, and continue to perceive variety of ideas; 
yet his memory does not seem to be strengthened 
hereby unless practice be joined, as in the case of 
hounds tutored to thechace. A repetition of voluntary 
exertions consecutive to the impression of those re- 
peated perceptions, is necessary to be connected there* 
with, to produce a habit of remeniscence and streng- 
then the memory in these species. Brutes, from their 
want of abstraction, and their paucity of memory as 
well as of other powers, are incapable of advancing 
in intellectual improvement ; incapable of enlarging 
their views and carrying on a train of successive ac- 
quirements of ascendancy and expedients; and are in 
these respects, in a sort stationary. But man seems 
to be placed at the head of this terrestrial race, the 
lord of all the animal world, and may innovate im- 
provements indefinitely ; his intelligence, as if a grow- 
ing principle, still increasing in its possessions even 
whether he will or no. 

The happiness of an active being, is not wholly 
separable from action. The highest happiness must 
pertain to the action of the highest faculties. There- 
fore our greatest enjoyment lies in the operations of 
our minds. Large comprehensive views contribute to 



329 



the perfection of human happiness. In particular 
ones, brutes have their highest enjoyments. As we 
approach to such conception as depends upon gross 
visible contact of matter, we recede from the emi- 
ences of intellect, and verge to the regions of insen- 
sibility. The subject matter, then, of man's chief 
happiness, consists in the operations of the mind; and 
more perhaps in contemplation than in any other par- 
ticular one of those operations. Contemplation and 
abstraction are those which combine more enjoyment 
than any other. Each operation of mind, draws plea- 
sure with it. Abstraction being the peculiar privilege 
of the human intellect, whereby it is wholly distin- 
guish'd from brutes, must have a peculiar pleasure 
which inferior intelligences never attain to. There is 

§more pleasure in contemplating abstract ideas than 
particular ones, for these following reasons, viz : 

First The pleasure is more lasting. The move- 
ment of the spirits, to be sure, in a nice collecting of 
these views is more slow than in observance of parti- 
culars of real existence the effect of impulses oh our 
senses: yet there is more pleasure, because more per- 
manent and constant. These objects preserve their 
conspicuitv and impressiveness in spite of the failings 
of the objects of sense, for they depend not on the 
fluctuating powers of our flimsy tabernacle. Neither 
do they depend on the existence of fhose varying and 
shortlived objects which are the efficient causes of 
particular ideas ; it being all one whether there be now 
extant any such thing as hospitality in the world or 
no, my idea of that sort or kind of action remains 
still tenable, equally without the existence of the par- 
ticular actions that are called hospitable and go to con- 
stitute that virtue in the actual instance, as with it* 
the idea m my head, of such a mode, no more depend- 
ing on the existence of, or ceasing to be, with, the par- 
ticular achetype in rerum natura, than the idea of a 

SB* 



330 

mammouth ceases to be and is annihilated with that 
race of animals; which is supposed to be now extinct. 
The variety which is implicitly involved in the capa- 
city of these ideas, whereby they have a greater fund 
of novelties upon which a continued examination can 
draw, unquestionably contributes to the durability of 
this pleasure. 

Secondly. These abstract ideas are (to use a coarse 
expression) ' our own property 9 Abstract ideas are 
of our own forming. For particular ideas, i. e. of par- 
ticular things, such as are those of a horse, a deed of 
charity, a basket of fruit, a pig, an elephant, a journey 
to Mexico, an epileptic fit, we are indebted to nature, 
chance, or whatever plastic or ascendant power there 
is in the great substantial world above us or about us, 
that we cannot reach. But abstract ideas are what 
we ourselves frame : are essentially the workmanship 
of our own minds. True, we depend upon other pow- 
ers for the materials of their composition, and in fact 
we make them up from our notices of those particular 
things that have; affected our senses. But then, we see, 
these ideas, when once framed, don't depend upon the 
actual existence of these particular beings the ideas of 
which they are made out of. So they setym to be some- 
thing we have got (from whatever originals their ele- 
mentary ingredients) and made up for ourselves, of 
which they seem to be a part, and appear to be as last- 
ing as any part of our frame, especially as those parts 
upon which our memory depends : and there is more 
pleasure in contemplating this sort of ideas, than those 
giblets (if I may say) of the universe, that are as it were 
blown to us by. the four winds of heaven ,- and they get 
an additional pleasure from the consideration of pro- 
perti/ derived from making. 

Thirdly. They comprise a greater quantity of plea- 
sure under the same compass of simple ideas. For in 
representing a large number of particular beings, they 



c 

d 

e 

P . s 



331 

contain a secret reference to other simple ideas they 
do not in their own coin position exhibit, whose exist- 
ence they implicate ; so that by a refinement of the 
operative faculties, a greater extent and variety of sub* 
istent objects are actually drawn under observance of 
the intellectual eye in the same moment, than the de- 
tail of particulars can yield. 

Fourthly. They yield a more sublime sort of plea- 
sure ; and therefore in this sense the pleasure is great- 
er. This perhaps is little other than a consequence 
of the preceding reasons. Abstract ideas being the 
synoptical ectj^os of widely scattered and diversified 
originals in reru-ro natura, which represent in owe, ma- 
ny individuals, afford a more magnificent view of na- 
ture than particular ones ; and the pleasure of contem- 
plating them is greater, and more elevated. This plea- 
sure is of a higher and more refined nature; because 
abstraction is the highest operation of the mind, which 
sets men altogether above brutes, wherein the latter 
have no participation at all. 

These are some of the principal reasons wherefore 
there is more pleasure in contemplating abstract ideas 
than particular ones, and effectually why our greatest 
enjoyment consists in operations of mind rather than 
those of the organs of sense. The powers of the un- 
derstanding, such as those of discernment, attention, 
recollection, study, contemplation, abstraction, rea- 
soning, are more durable than those of the senses, 
whose organs are fragile, and their very existence pre- 
carious,, being; continually obnoxious to ruinous acci- 
dents. He that sets up his rest in his own mind, treads 
a perpetual circle of delightful business, and move- 
ments vividly varying : here is all the variety in na- 
ture. Here is a place where all the variety in nature 
may be represented. The understanding has all the 
ideas which are induced through the sensitive o^ans, 
and likewise those of the peculiar powers, acis,and 



38S 

operations of itself, for the groundwork of its specula- 
tions. Hereon, t?Iso, the phantom fancy paints with 
endless variegation ; and when worlds are exhausted 
of their novelties, sketches new ones. 

Truth sits serene at a sublime elevation above the 
storms of human controversy: her halcyon retreat is 
unannoyed by the perturbation that agitates the per- 
plexed, the doubtful, and the dictatorial ; inflexibly 
fixed in one eternal attitnde that bids defiance to all 
external influence. All other things change, but truth 
never changes: Mortals reach adumbrant glimpses of 
the reality ; but to dwell in her presence, and enjoy 
the full effulgence of her unfolded glories, is the con- 
summation of our felicity as rational intelligences. 
The more we approximate metaphysical truth, the 
more we enjoy of that serenely sublime happiness 
• whose very rapture is tranquility.' We have a con- 
tinual appetite for a sight of reality (which we effectu- 
ally have when we perceive the actual conformity of 
our ideas to real existence,) and this is called cu- 
riosity, which is commensurate in its energy with hope 
itself. If we are always hoping some improvement of 
our condition, we are always desiring to know the 
strength of the probability on which our hope rests. 
Truth sits, I say, divinely aloof above the storms of hu- 
man folly and the capricious courants of imagination ; 
and, as with an eternal sunshine, displays all things. 
Truth, then, is above all other definite things as a fit 
object of the adoration of human intelligences ; for it is 
a natural incentive to our purest and sublimest desire, 
and contains in itself the subject matter of its natural 
gratification. It shews all things; it lays open the se- 
crets of the substantial universe, and ot the movements 
of its parts: it furthermore consoles the gloomiest mc 
ments of our existence, enlivens the dejected, and 
spreads a sumptuous feast of intellectual food produc- 
tive of true happiness. How precarious then and 



9 

I 

to 



333 

ow imperfect must be their enjoyment who maVe a 
itudy of falsehood ! Falsehood is as umnaturai to the 
understanding as to the body is to walk bavkward. 
Falsehood is opposed to moral truth in an active serine, 
and means the practical joining or separating ofsjgns 
contrary to their agreement or disagreement ; or the 
joining oi* the reciprocal relations of signs, aad of the 
things signified by them, when they have no conform^ 

Mankind at large worship property, fashion, and 
ame. These are the three deities that men from their 
earts adore Whatsoever other worship they do is 
oo generally but empty scund, or formal moving. 3 he 
devotion of their hearts is directed to these three su- 
perlative divinities. Truth is that which they ought 
rather to worship than these. Truth, considered in its 
metaphysical and moral characters, is a being which 
ought to attract the highest adoration, and call forth 
the most devout ardor of the soul of man. If devotion 
in the heart of man be directed to any definite object 
within his comprehension, it should be most intently 
to truth. It is this that gives both its strength and hap- 
piness to human society. Without it were neither 
enjoyment, permanence, nor safety in the society of 
mankind. It is this also that universally gives delight 
to the understanding, whether solitary or social. This 
is its metaphysical character. It is so charming that 
the very resemblance of it pleases and charms. But 
if its semblance is endearing, the original is more so. 
Truth, in the sense wherein it is called metaphysical 
truth, is little else but the real existence of things por- 
trayed on our understanding ; it being the perfect 
agreement and conformity of our ideas to what exists 
beyond them. This delights the soul, as nourishment 
does the body. It is, in short, the natural food of the 
soul. In the human mind is fixed the principle ot cu- 
riosity ; whose inquisitive and restless energy perpe- 



334 

tually impels to the search of reality. The finding o 
truth is its sole and constant gratification. But the 
bulk of mankind, deluded and vitiated by inveterate 
errors, instead of worshipping This, warship property, 
fashion, am\ fame. They speak of other deities they 
do not know, but what they say of them is but compli- 
ment to these three deities, which ultimately engross 
the devotion of their hearts. The ^reat business of 
man in this world is improvement of mind. The pro- 
gress of mind towards perfection, is in a great measure 
spontaneous. It is the duty of man to facilitate it. 

The main business of mankind properly is to contri- 
bute to the enlargement and facility of intellectual 
power and operation. The reasons are these : 1st. He 
is capable of greater increase of menial power by i tfl- 
ture than is any other species of animal with which v e 
are acquainted; 2d. lie is capable of greater increase 
of enjoyment, from such increase. The principle of 
action which impels mind to enlarge its capacity, ex- 
tend the sphere of its apprehension, multiply its disco- 
veries, and facilitate its is. is curiosity. Cu- 
riosity is stronger in man than in other species of ani- 
mals. The desire of knowledge, ar.d consequently the 
pleasure of receiving new knowledge, are greater in 
mankind than in any other species of animals with which 
we are acquainted. Tranquillity or a due temperament 
of sensorial motion, is the great foundation of all intel- 
lectual and moral improvement. On this the struc- 
ture naturally rises. In such a medium mind pro- 
gresses towards perfection. Next to this, an essen- 
tial qualification that becomes an indispensable instru- 
ment to the acquiring of knowledge, is a habit of attei - 
tion. A habit of attention attained in early life, dis- 
tinguishes the progress of those who excel in genius, 
and marks an eminence in talent and erudition. With- 
out a habit of attention, no remarkable accumulation 
of knowledge can take place. Voluntary application 



335 

of the understanding energy, must ji rst direct and ad- 
vance the progress of mind towards perfection To 
exceed the measure of what is familiarly known to the 
balk of mankind, and has been handed down a series of 
ages by the tradition and common sense of successive 
generations, close voluntary thinking only can avail. 
Voluntary thinking is that which leads the way to im- 
provement of mind. Attention is a mode of voluntary 
thinking; and without attention no proficiency can be 
gained. Therefore if men will not progress in im- 
provement of mind, they cannot. If they wil , they do 
progress. It requires the energy of voluntary exer- 
tion directing their thoughts in train to this veiy ob- 
ject. It requires a perception of something represent- 
ing the object to the understandjtig, by means of u hich 
it prevails to produce the greatest desire, of which it 
becomes the end, and ultimately determines the will. 
This energy, I say, is required to direct the operating 
acuities into a train of actions which eventually pro- 
duce a habit of attention. This train of actions is a 
continued course of voluntary thought, wherein the 
same acts are repeated, acid which includes in it that 
which is called attention. Truth should be the imme- 
diate scope of all our inquiries. Truth is the proper 
and natural object of pursuit, to intelligent creatures 
that seek improvement. Truth is the conformity of 
the reciprocal relations of signs, joined or disjoined, 
with the reciprocal relations of the things signified by 
those signs, to be properly considered as represented 
to be joined or disjoined Thus if the idea of exist- 
ence and the idea of a piece of gold are joined together 
in our mind, this junction and consistence of them 
there, is a relation, i. e the reciprocal relation of them 
one to another ; and if the piece of gold itself is joined 
with existence, that is, if it really exists in nature, this 
coincidence is a i elatior ; the conformity of these two 
relations is truth. If, furthermore, to the idea of a 




336 

piece of gold, i. e. of a body yellow, hard, and heavy, is 
joined the idea of ductility, this state of connection in- 
cludes the reciprocal relation of these two ideas; if at 
the same time in real existence this ductility has a 
place among the qualities of the piece of gold itself, their 
co-existence is the reciprocal relation of ductility and 
the other constituents of gold : and the conformity of 
these two relations, to wit, of our ideas and of the 
things which they represent in real existence, is truth. 
And if also we affirm of the piece of gold, it is ductile, 
we join the expression of ductility and the expression 
of gold, and there is a relation of these two words one 
to another ; and if in our minds gold and ductility 
stand thus related one to another as they are expressed, 
i. e. have agreement or coalescence as they are joined 
in the affirmation ; this aspect is a reciprocal relation ; 
and this conformity of these reciprocal relations, is 
truth. Words are the signs of ideas, and ideas are 
the signs of things separate from our ideas. Truth is 
of two sorts; ~ metaphysical truth and moral truth. 
Metaphysical truth is the conformity of the recipro- 
cal relations of ideas as representing things, with 
the reciprocal relations of things, or with the relations 
of things to our own conscious existence. Moral truth 
is the conformity of the reciprocal relations of signs 
voluntary joined or disjoined in affirmation or negation, 
to the reciprocal relations of the things those signs re- 
present. There is that which maybe called historical 
truth, which though it has no visible certainty about it, 
has the same effect in the purposes to which it is ap- 
plied, as absolute, certain truth ; which is when we put 
together ideas in an assumed conformity to the rela- 
tions ot the things they represent, without any actual 
perception of such conformity, which thus is niken to 
be, without perceiving it to be ; as when we believe a 
proposition, having no actual knowledge ot its verify. 
Arid such is the truth of most of our opinions. Thus 



3S7 

if a neighbor tells me that one hundred and fifty wild 
geese having journeyed from a southwestern compass, 
are refreshing themselves in a certain pool seventy rods 
from the spot where I abide, I am satisfied of a con- 
formity existing between the relations of these words 
and those of the ideas which are in the mind of the 
speaker, although I do not perceive it : and not only so, 
but I consider these ideas which are conveyed into my 
mind by those words, as having a correspondence, in 
their reciprocal relations, with the scene of real exist- 
ence they are representative of : that is, putting the 
ideas together in affirmation, conformably to what is 
supposed to be in reality of things, I assume this con- 
formity to exist, without actual knowledge that it does 
so ; and therefore I believe the proposition. 

What I shall offer, by way of particular direction to 
the managery of the remaining part of the business I 
have been discoursing of, I shall address to those grown 
men and women who are the objects of it, as being sup- 
posed to be both preceptors and pupils of themselves. 
The following rules therefore are adapted to the con- 
dition of mature persons governing themselves, for 
their guile in such government, to the finishing of their 
education ; and are accordingly addressed to such, in 
thy form of directory precepts and injunctions; those 
who ^ajerintendthe education of others in this condi- 
tion (being supposed to have the same care for their 
weal as they have for their own, to propose the same 
ends and be disposed to prescribe the like measures 
and trains of exercises as ihey would to themselves in 
the same pursuits,) standing in the same habitude as 
the, others to these prescripts. You who are the pro- 
per objects of tne appropriation of these rules (persons 
over the a*»;e uf twenty one years) are supposed, what- 
ever counsellors or preceptors you may have beside, 
to be the directors of your own conduct, and depend 
On your own will what measures it shall be effectually 
29 



338 

modified by, to what ends directed, and to what habits 
it shall lead. 

Now men can teach themselves the sciences as well 
as the mechanic arts. Instances of the latter are too 
frequent to admit of a question. What I mean here by 
teaching themselves, is in effect, acquiring, by their 
own resolute pursuit and voluntary application, inde- 
pendent of direction and patterns put them by living 
guides. 

Rule I. Make your first study to make all feasible 
returns to your parents and other early benefac- 
tors, for your preservation and nurture. 

Indeed such debts are best discharged by upright and 
amiable deport, and perhaps cannot be effectually 
done in any other way, without this. But where 
parents are in need, it is the invariable indication 
of a good heart to be alert in relieving and pro- 
tecting them. 

Rul^ II. Pitch upon an honorable course of life, and 
abide in it steadily. 

This rule is equally appropriate within the limits of 
several years. In studying the application of this 
rule, consider that fortune may call you to various 
occupations and your career may be diversified 
by many different recourses for a livelihood. 

Rulk III. The regularity and equanimity of you T life 
consists not in, nor depends on, the uniformity of 
your corporeal actions that make your external 
occupations, so much as the general t ack, and 
habits, of your trains of thought : and an ab- 
stracted arrangement is the best. 

ule iy If you have not had opportunity, or have- 
neglected, in your minority, to acquire sufficient 
skill in arithmetic, grammar of your language 



339 

penmanship, and geography, scruple not to set 
diligently about to compass it at this present pe- 
riod* Jind to this end appropriate all your lei- 
sure till you have gained the desired proficiency. 

Rule V, In pursuing these sciences and arts, keep 
their utility in view, and deduce from it all your 
urgency in this pursuit. Let this single consi- 
deration, its usefulness, impel you to a careful 
improvement of every opportunity, and undivided 
application to the quest of any particular deside- 
ratum. 

Rule VI. Read hooks of metaphysics, physiology, as- 
tronomy, chemistry , medicine, geography , and na- 
tural history, as you are able to procure them. 

Where your condition admits of a choice, procure a 
few of the most valuable in these sorts, and abide 
by them as your principal standards so far as re- 
concileable to your reasoning, in preference to a 
fluctuation in compliance to dogmatic pretenders 
or ne a -tangled theories. Some of the best authors 
in those departments were Locke, Darwin, Sir 
Isaac Newton, Chaptal, Culien, and Linnaeus. 
For a general exploration of speculative know- 
ledge, no helps of this kind are so admirably 
adapted to common life as encyclopedias, of 
which the French and British nations have given 
some of the best specimens now extant. In a tho- 
rough course of siudies, the several branches of 
the mathematics would have their place prior to 
physiology, 

Rule VII. In devoting time to the pursuit of art or 
science, keep a single eye to utility, as your final 
goal. 

Rule VIII. Jivoid novel reading, except in burlesque. 



340 

Rule IX. Bead history, — especially travels and voy- 
ages. 

Rule X. Jbove all others, fail not to read the best 
books of ethics. 

There is a variety of excellent books of this sort; 
among which I think that work of Mr. Adam 
Smith, entitled a ' Theory of Moral Sentiments, 7 
is as good as any I know of. in the form of a sys- 
tem. Hutchinson's ' System of Moral Philoso- 
phy 9 also is a valuable book of this sort. But 
• Tuliy's Offices,' I take, holds the first rank as a 
practical work in this department. 4 Seneca's 
Morals' is a book of this sort, which no young per- 
son ought to be without an acquaintance with. A 
book called the 'Economy of Human Life ;' also 
the Proverbs of Solomon ; but above all the doc- 
trinal parts of the gospels, the teachings of Jesus 
Christ, ought not to be omitted- 

Rule XI. Let morals be yoiir chief study and concern ; 
and study them as a system of science the founda- 
tion of which is sympathy, wherefrom is demon* 
stratively deduced all our social obligation. 

This is the most natural rise of the duties of life, 
and the most satisfactory to account for them ; 
and thence is calculated to make them more easy 
and agreeable. 

Rule XII. Let the timing and arrangement of your 
studies be gradual and lucid. 

In order to put into effect what is purported in this 
rule, let the day (or week) before you, be delibe- 
rately distributed to appropriations distinct as the 
particular themes, circuits of speculation, or sorts 
of exercise you have to pursue therein ; and learn 






341 

one thing thoroughly before you venture upon the 
entangling of your thoughts with the next. 

Rule XIII In the advancing of your knowledge from 
one subject to another ; make as small removes as 
it is possible to make and get distinct knowledge. 

The object of this rule is thorough improvement of 
the capacity of the mind ; to which end learn per- 
fectly a little new knowledge at a time, and let 
that little recede in as small degree from the pre- 
ceding accession as it can and be a distinct com- 
pass of knowledge. Regular and slow gradation 
of new knowledge, is most propitious to improve- 
ment of mind, because each of these several pieces 
of knowledge (if I may so speak) has by its affini- 
ty and other lines of association, more or less to 
do with the other, which accustoms them to a fre- 
quent concomitance whereby they gain a sort of 
topical propinquity and a strong association ^ith 
one another; whence they run as it were into one 
body and enlighten the whole soul, when one part 
is as intimate and ready to recollection as the 
other. 

Rule XIV. Indirectly inquire of artists (with an in* 
terspersion of entertaining remarks) for the 
rules of their operations. 

This practice contributes to induce cultivation of 
sympathy, at the same time it extends useful 
knowledge, and exercises the understanding. 

Rule XV. To preserve what useful things you get in 
this way and by observation, accustom yourself 
to register, in words and abbreviations, the par- 
ticular curiosities you discover. 

Rule XVI. In the estimate of any new course of ac- 
tion propostd to yourself to enter upon, consider 
29* 



342 

the tendency and effects of the habit to which the 
repetition of that action would lead, and let your 
estimate of the habit be that of the action, and ac- 
cordingly determine its eligibility. 

The due adjustment of our estimate of the right and 
wrong of our actions depends in great measure 
on the consideration of the incidence of habit, 
which is the inseparable consequent of their repe- 
tition. In proportion as we become accustomed 
to any posture of mind, or habituated to any par- 
ticular course of whatever sort of thought or mo- 
tion, their reverse becomes repugnant to our satis- 
faction : therefore we proportionably become 
averse to a contrary course and to whatever sug- 
gests it. If we accustom ourselves to passing our 
evenings in conversation with our neighbors or 
strangers, we recede from a habit of reading in 
those intervals of our occupation. The question 

^ of the propriety of repeating any action, should be 
determined by the tendency of a habit of that ac- 
tion. 

Rule XVII. In deliberating upon any action in your 
power, to which you are unpracticed, consider 
yourself to have been the actor of it, and the con- 
sequences regularly following from it. 

The best way one can employ his vacant moments 
must be in those actions which he can reflect up- 
on with complacency or delight when he recol- 
lects them : for it is evidently true of most of our 
actions that they are longer time objects of our 
memory and recollection, than they are present- 
ly passing as objects of our perception. There* 
fore it is unquestionably as objects of retrospect- 
ive reflection that they are chiefly to recommend 
themselves to our estimate. This is the respect 
in which they are perfected. If this be so, it is 



343 



jlain that to make our actions subservient to our 
utmost good, it is necessary to imaginatively set 
them in this same habitude as past existences, and 
consider ourselves as beings that are noticed and 
experienced to have acted those particular deeds 
of which we anticipate and purpose the real agen- 
cy- 
Rule XVIII. Travel 

The application of this rule is very casually modi- 
fied ; and indeed it has no business in this series 
in any other sense than the most general, whence 
its intentional import is to collect by actual ob- 
servation, real knowledge of the beings and modes 
around us in the world, whereby our experience 
and habits are more or less directly influenced. 
This is modified, 1 say, by the diverse conditions 
and fates of different individuals. Some persons 
are so poor they cannot reasonably attempt to 
change their place very widely ; others so sickly. 
In some instances poverty and a weakly consti- 
tution combined, form an insuperable barrier to 
extensive travelling. In fact I prescribe in this 
only to make such surveys of the neighboring so- 
cieties, territories, and countries where one lives, 
as are compatible with his abilities and obligations. 
One person gets more knowledge by travelling 
through an adjoining town, than others in strolling 
over an empire. Nay, a person may perambulate 
this whole terrestrial stage, not being intent upon 
any improvement, any increase of his stock of 
knowledge, or rectification of his opinions, and get 
very little advancement of his education. There- 
fore travel with your eyes open. Some small 
excursions at least are necessary A very gene- 
ral custom strikes out travel from female educa- 
tion. Yet, in some extent, it is necessary evea 



344 

for women to travel. To a too contracted sphere 
of life, as well as the want of curious observation, 
we owe abundance of prejudices that prevail. 

Rule XIX. Avoiding all excesses of indulgence, stu- 
dy that regular course to supply all the exigen- 
cies of yow nature, which best comports and con- 
sists with the common good of the republic ; the 
true interest and weal of the majority of the peo- 
ple you live amongst. 

Rule XX. In this view, marry a companion for life* 
if it may be such an one as is reconcileable to a 
concurrence of sentiments and plans : not other- 
ivise. 

For jangling combinations (of this sort) are pests to 
a community, both by dint of their own example, 
and by setting on the stage children who being 
bred within the turmoils of domestic dissention, 
multiply specimens of degenerate morals. Di- 
verse opinions have prevailed concerning the pro- 
priety of marriage. Philosophers have disagreed 
on this subject. Here appears, however, very lit- 
tle ground of disputation. A state of society is 
the state of nature : why ? Because we are suited 
to such a condition by nature. Mankind are fitted 
for such a state in their constructure, their capa- 
city, their faculties. A conventionary and per- 
manent union of individuals of different sexes, is 
conformable to every law of nature ; to every 
principle of natural benignity; to every principle 
of the preservation and improvement of human 
nature. Therefore marriage is agreeable to the 
moral law of nature. Some situations make it 
improper, and inconsistent with great purposes 
of philanthropy. Some particular persons proba- 
bly could never have brought about those weighty 



345 

works of genius, those vast achievements of inteL- 
Hgential might that have enlightened the world, 
if their thoughts had been liable to be taken up 
with the concerns of this consociation. And we 
find that some of our greatest philosophers never 
married, although they lived to advanced age. 
There be sects, however, who denounce it. The 
absurdity of such a tenet is obvious. 

Iule XX f. In reference to the application of these 
rides, leisw ely inquire into the nature of the fe- 
male cha; acter as distinguished from the male $ 
and study the peculiarities hereof without a par- 
ticular pursuit of personal interest. 

Several evils have crept in with the prevailing fas! ■ 
Dnsof the civilized World, in the matter of the inter- 
course that is used as the medium of personal acquaint- 
ance between young people of opposite sexes. There 
be those who reckon violent motions indispensable to 
accomplish great ends. In proportion to the intense- 
ness of the desire moving any design, it becomes fash- 
ionable to attach swiftness or suddenness of move- 
ment to the plan of its execution, as if it could no way 
have place without it. This is a sort of natural asso- 
ciation of resemblance. Mankind has the knack of 
engendering associations of ideas resembling one ano- 
ther. The mind of man is prone to assembling togeth- 
er similar ideas, which by frequent occurrence, one be- 
ing suggested by the other, and an aptitude to repeat 
attention to them in this connection, acquire an almost 
indissoluble union, so that one cannot be brought into 
the understanding without the other appears likewise, 
either in immediate and consecutive succession, or in 
simultaneous concurrence. An instance of erroneous 
judgment arising out of this sort of association, is con- 
spicuous in mankind's customary language for denot- 
ing particular attachments of the passion, love ; and 



346 

planning those permanent consociations of the sexes 
whereby the species is perpetuated, and the comfort 
of subsistence refined and diffused. Because the pas- 
sion is violent, the uncultivated imagine there can be 
no true sign of it but violent motion, with such discri- 
minating phenomena as jumping, racing, scuffling, grin- 
ning, loud laughter, springing, extraordinary sallies of 
imagination exemplified in hyperbole and rant, more 
than common exertion of the inventive powers to mis- 
represent reality, &c. ; and that so much as it lacks 
of these palpable criteria, it lacks of genuineness, and 
ought to be reckoned a feigned emotion pretended only 
or the purpose of illusion. This way is extended to 
a very predominant fashion, by mankind's unaptness in 
reasoning; wherein they are too commonly averse to 
the use of that noble faculty whereby they are so emi- 
nently distinguished from other beings in this part of 
the universe. This abusive fashion, since, like all oth- 
er fashions when by general practice become settled 
into a governing rule, it austerely overrules the modi- 
fication of sentiments, is on several occasions patheti- 
cally inauspicious to studious persons, who cultivate 
the best of social plans, perhaps, while it is as unnatu- 
ral for them to act rudely or indecently ; as unnatural 
for them to express their genuine emotions and denote 
their honest purposes by boisterous movement or per- 
verse use of their faculties, as it is to walk backward, 
or with the hands to saw the air horizontally and per- 
pendicularly at the same time. For violent motion of 
every kind, is counter to reasoning ; for reasoning is a 
slow deliberate movement of the sensorial machinery, 
implying a casting about and examining the respects 
of one idea with another ; in which must be repetition 
of the same steps, &c. which renders the progression 
incompatible with violent and swift motion. Now, the 
best schemes of social life are plotted with the aid" of 
reason. The happiest plans of subsistence and enjoy- 



847 

merit owe their constructure to a judicious use of the 
faculty reason. A habit of reasoning correctly of the 
nature and consequences of actions, which is the main 
support of propriety in social conduct, is a great ex- 
cellence in human improvement. Therefore this coun- 
terbuff and disparaging of reason at the very thresh- 
old of human society, making the indispensable condi- 
tion to the greatest comfort of the species, which is a 
state of society, to be the abnegation of all those cool 
and gentle methods concinnous to reflecting minds, is 
that which constitutes one great source of the degene- 
racy of mankind in those communities where this fash- 
ion reigns. For when it is made necessary for young 
people to be unreasonable in order to be social, and 
every one has an invincible propensity to society % 
what is more obviously conclusive than that this very 
fashion of making vehement motions the usual signs 
of the sexual affection, and boisterous, nugatory, and 
wicked behavior, the exclusive passport to the advan- 
tages of the social state, is a direct efficient cause of 
that common depravity and licentiousness which en- 
cumber the morals of very polished nations ? For here- 
in gentleness and sobriety of deport are condemned, 
and mulcted with a surrender of what nature gave to 
all mankind, and their opposites promoted. 

Whereas if the solemnity usual in the executing of 
testaments called wills, and the taking of oaths, were 
made the popular character of all courtships and pri- 
vate contracts of marriage, wherein a habit of reflec- 
tion should take the lead in the common estimate of 
those who set out with these plans, it seems unques- 
tionable that virtue being the invariable price of those 
goods which irresistibly attract all, would become a 
more general resort among the commonalty of the 
young, and in course proceed to give a prevailing cha- 
racter of affability to civilized communities. For what 
distinguishing habits people have at the age of eighteen 



348 

«r nineteen, usually carry great influence on their 
whole succeeding lives ; and that is a time of life when 
those manners and methods are alopted which seem 
most aptly to serve the turn of accommodating those 
very strong and vigorous desires and other emotions 
which in them prevail. And what is adopted is soon 
habituated by a constant correspondence of the same 
objects and recourses* There are certain extrinsical 
things which are mere ceremonials, taken as exclusive 
vehicles of this affection. The vulgar take what is 
common and most general, the same as universal ; and 
affect to deduce universal truths from partial premises. 
Consequently we are not to wonder that those are not 
thought to possess any operative attachment of this 
kind, who do not precipitately sally into certain cere- 
monious indications of an animal attachment expressed 
in fact little otherwise than brutes express 4 hemselves 
under the same emotions. But these are not all the 
evils that pervert judgment and repress sympathy, in 
mankind's fashioning this intercourse. There is an- 
other usage, which is probably even more pernicious 
still ; and that is the connecting of pageantry with the 
promotion of the design of this intercourse : and so in- 
veterate, that such as is either not disposed or not able 
to appear in a splendid or foppish habiliment and with 
a certain customary parade, is reckoned unworthy to 
succeed to any advantageous place in the circle of the 
social state, and considered an outcast in respect to so 
exalted an intercourse, among the polished tribes of 
aristocracy. Whence there are those who think them- 
selves insulted by an offer of society 

This may arise from several considerations : but it 
very often arises from an idea of their superiority over 
their proponent, and this superiority is usually com- 
mentitious and lies altogether in wealth or some ad- 
ventitious adjunct or other And thus a poor person 
insults a rich by proposing marriage to her. And this 



3*9 



sort of cupidity^liig reverence of mammon, which . , 
vails to match rich with rich, and mates what is cafled 
good fortune an indispensable condition to the en ov 
ment of society is another obstacle that embarrasses 
the pursuit of this intercourse by many worthvS 
sons. Thus rich are associated with rich, and $£ 
with poor as aptly as one blade of a p,ir of shears 
with another; and it becomes as prevail n ? a fash on as 
the matching of cattle or horses^ by tffeh- co or ami 
size ; there being supposed to be nothing in hum 1 na 
tore ..self alone, adapting one individual to aether ' 
but only ra some exterior connection, as the possession 
of money cattle, lands, houses, ^OmdhiWoTiZ 
kinds : and an intermarriage of rich with poor -of one 
wno has anestate with one^who has no estate at al"! 
conquered asanomalous as that of two distinct specie ' 
of an u.al s , as a rabbit and a wild «oose. There be some 
— -v en are persuaded it is matter of »e„ero3tv ?o 
ketone in a temporary delusion that merefy sc Lns 
him from the perspective of what they are sensible 
woud momentarily grieve or frustrate, so farasTt s » 
state of things diametrically the reverse of "that w> ich 
hepropends to anticipate ; not considering that he 
greater this delusion or the longer it is kept up the 
more exquisite must be the pain which arises from i£ 
dissipation. For however pleasing it be to a person 
to be deluded ,t ,s disagreeable to nnd h.mself to have 
been deluoed, and this in exact proportion to the 
agreeableness of the delusion. A delusion may be 
pleasing and the more so as it is of long continuance 
andeudesreahty; but m the same proportion lie- 
wise the discovery of it is displeasing. Ve £ no- 
bleness of delusion is proportionate to its continuance 
and speciousness : and the pain of discovering i" pro ! 
portionate to its agreeableness. Therefore ft is much 
kinder to make a prompt unequivocal disclosure of the 
state of things un.ler question, however adverse to the 
30 



350 

inclination of the adventurer who pursues an attractive 
object of hope, than to tantalize him with dallying delays 
under pretence of gradually mollifying the shock of dis- 
appointment, which however to the unreflecting seems 
sometimes the most humane procedure. There are oth- 
ers, again, who take delight in tantalizing and keeping in 
suspense those who depend on their determinations to 
inquiries their deepest wishes are concerned with. 
This is an inhuman satisfaction. When this goes to 
persuade one of an opposite sex, of love and attach- 
ment which do not exist, to which the pride of having 
apparent admirers or the pursuit of some meaner end 
may greatly help forward the motive, it has the name 
coquetry ; which is a base species of chicane. Various 
characters there be to which the name villain is appro- 
priate, and amongst them is the coquette. A coquette, 
male or female, is, properly speaking, a villain : and a 
most disinterested one too ; for there is finally no visi- 
ble gain to any party by such a practice, except it be a 
satisfaction in the reflection of unhappy feelings brought 
about in others by one's own agency. We can scarce- 
ly conceive a greater degree of malignity than that 
which makes one take delight in the bare contempla- 
tion of the idea of inflicting pain upon others without 
pretension to any good resulting to him or herself 
therefrom. And yet ihzve be women, and also men, 
who exhibit great satisfaction in this sort of proceed- 
ing, for which they rarely ever betray any signs of 
com] .unction. Others again, out of an undue timo- 
rousness and irregular modesty, withhold from their 
suitors the resolutions of their own minds respecting 
the others' proposed views. I say irregular, for true 
modesty doe* not conceal what is o. importance to the 
feelings of others, on account of any selfish considera- 
tion asnle hereof. A bashful shyness may suppress a 
direct answer to some very civil questions, or to a sim- 
ple request of an interview, but Uuz modesty wjH 



151 



not* To apply this to the former, is to attach it to a 
had character ; whereas modesty belongs to a good 
character, It is called a good quality ; since its rise 
implies some improvement of sympathy. The im- 
provement of sympathy is bat extending the view of 
the understanding. It seems but a continuation of 
those comparisons of ideas which constitute the rela- 
tion between our feelings and others 5 . Thus, " per- 
ceiving another to grieve exquisitely (without consi- 
dering any definite cause) we have some degree of this 
emotion raised in our own selves. But to consider 
that he grieves for the loss of a son, and feel a corres- 
pondent grief, requires a little farther-extended view. 
Another thing that is encumbering to the true inter- 
est of philanthropy in the pursuits of this intercourse, 
is a tyrannical custom with some parents, of -controul- 
ing the marriage of their offspring against the course 
of nature. 

That parents exercise their authority to prevent 
their marriage within the age of their minority, i. e. 
before the age of twenty-one years, is undeniably equi- 
table in civilized communities : but aside of this limit 
and qualification, for a parent or any other to control 
and dictatorially modify the marriage of any, is unna- 
tural tyranirv. Many, however, make this a matter 
of principle, and think they do but their duty when of 
their own accord they choose a partner for a descend- 
ant, and fix upon irreversible plans for their conjuga- 
tion. To this we may add a disgusting and injurious 
trick multitudes of people blunder into, of interfering 
about other individuals' plans of this sort, wherein that 
which practically concerns the thoughts of but two or 
three persons, they make a subject of much talk and 
speculation ; and delight to throw contempt on those 
individuals. These are some of the lets that lie in their 
way, who from a philosophic train of speculation, pur- 
sue this important connection with society. But these 



352 

are not all. There is another, which most of these 
may originate from ; and that is a defect of female edu- 
cation. 

Cultivation of the female mind is shamefully neg- 
lected. The boys get more knowledge and improve- 
ment by running about the world, even if they have no 
more tuition than the girls ; or sometimes by emula- 
tion in some particular art, such as arithmetic, pen- 
manship, grammar, geometry, or the like ; but more 
rarety is any incitement given to girls to cultivate 
learning. The female mind is suffered to go wild (in 
a great measure) in this economical age. It is thought 
prudent to circumscribe the improvement of females 
rather more than that of males. It seems to be thought 
they would make a dangerous use of intellectual re- 
finement and liberal science. There is craft in keep- 
ing the female mind fallow. The leaders of the " chil- 
dren of this world" have a policy in it, to keep up the 
distinction of the two great divisions of the world, 
called the rich and the poor ; to strengthen and widen 
the partition between them ; and give ascendancy to 
the rich. The dull, the ignorant, and uncultivated, 
are generally rich. % Poets and philosophers,' it is said, 
'are always poor.' Those who, neglecting inferior 
objects, have pursued enlargement of intellectual 
views, are generally poor. Penury usually goes along 
with cultivation of parts; and love of money is usually 
the associate of dullness and narrow thoughts. Now, 
it seems as if the leading aristocrats of this world 
thought, by keeping the female mind uncultivated and 
dull, to make women (especially such as have wealth) 
hate and despise those of the other sex who are culti- 
vated ; (and nc likelier recourse, for such as have no 
learning are disaffected at the signs of it in others) lest 
otherwise, that is if they were cultivated, thousands of 
them might intermarry with the others out of pure af- 
fection, in spite of poverty : and this, you know, would 



353 

lend to level : this would be to profane the porcelain 
clay of the nobility by an intermixture of the plebeian 
spawn, and confound or obliterate the choicest dis- 
tinctions of civil society. For they know, that since 
marriage depends more on the wills of women than of 
men, if women that are rich, or are heirs to wealth, 
should marry the poor ; or if, being poor, it should be 
so fashionable that they should have influence in com- 
mon custom, to marry the rich ; it would defeat their 
design, which is to keep the wealth of this world with- 
in the paws of the brutish and fatvvitted, where it is 
likely to keep close, compact, concentrated and se- 
cure. Should it unfortunately get into the hands of 
the cultivated, it would be liable to be diffused and 
scattered abroad over the stage of civil life ; for such 
would delight even to distribute it to the poor. So 
the liberal arts and sciences are thought to be impru- 
dently trusted in the hands of females ; they being na- 
turally tender hearted, and more readily inclined to 
benignant emotions, it is thought that by their influ- 
ence, they would with such means, diffuse and equal- 
ize the concentrated wealth of aristocratical monopo- 
lies. These arch emissaries that affect to control by 
underhand influences, the condition of society, are well 
aware that if girls were enlightened and refined in 
their understandings, it would be incident for them to 
intermarry with the poor : that is, they would choose 
men for their talents and accomplishments, rather than 
for their wealth ; because they would be competent to 
discern some other charms between those of wealth 
and beauty. If they were so liberal and ingenuous as 
a cultivation of mind would make them, they would 
choose men for their real worth, and not for their for- 
tune; and thence would prefer a cultivated intelli- 
gence with no estate, to one who being wealthy is 
void of erudition and art. For this cultivation oives 
them a capacity to apprehend the blandishments that 
30* 



354 

appertain to a refined and enlarged understanding i 
gives them a perception of moral and intellectual beau- 
ty, transcendant to corporeal beauty. For any that 
has learning, is sensible to the charms of it in others. 
The same thing, also, would make them despise wealth. 
Now, as a greater proportion of those who are cultivat- 
ed are poor than rich ; and women, both before and 
after their marriage, have great influence over the men, 
it is plainly seen by these sly grovelling mongers of 
aristocratical distinctions, that such care of the female 
mind would tend to resolve the knots of worldlingmo- 
nopolists ; to dispand and disseminate their hateful 
and disgraceful masses of pelf; and to distribute into 
many parts what would be serviceable to thousands 
of others. It requires cultivation of mind, to be able 
to estimate men according to their real worth. Wo- 
men, if they be able to estimate men according to their 
real worth, are inclined to do it ; as they are naturally 
predisposed to benignity. 

If this were not the reason, wherefore should we so 
frequently hear so many respectable persons affirm 
that ' girls ought not to have much learning' — 'it is 
never worth while to send girls to school a great deal'? 
So this operates at the very ground -work of literary 
education. This reason operates with the choice spi- 
rits, the few, that lead the fashions of the day. The 
bulk of the ' children of the world,' for the gain they 
expect by their service, aim to make mere drudges of 
women, like brutes designed solely to subserve* the do- 
mestic economy by propagation or labor. But their 
views are coincident with those of the other : emanat- 
ing from another motive, they terminate in the same 
eftect, so far as it regards the mind. For it is the 
main lever of both to keep that dull and ciicumscript. 
It is the interest of both these parties to keep the fe- 
male mind in a state of vulgarity, and as inept and far 
tuou3 as possible. For it indeed is truly said that those 



355 



select distinguished individuals who wish for such 
state of things, and intently study to promote arista 
cracy, are but a small part of civil society ,- therefor 
cannot consistently presume upon bringing it abou 
Yet it must not be denied that they have great influ 
ance upon the rest, and even controul them, the rathe 
perhaps because they drive at the same point. If i 
be not so, how comes it about that we find so few fe- 
males, even among the politer circles, who have any 
noted extent of erudition (did I say ?)— nay, that un- 
derstand so much as the structure of their vernacular 
language, whereby they might be enabled to pursue the 
meditations of others to the knowledge of things ? 
How comes it about that we have to observe in them 
such an indifterency to the subject of erudition and 
literary achievements? Why are books, schools, and 
scientific pursuits spoken of so diminutively? How is 
it that they are treated with such total aspernation, 
not only by young ladies themselves, but by those of 
their parents who are abundantly able to invest them 
with very liberal accomplishments of mind, and who 
yet deem it a more considerable object for their daugh- 
ters to make a stylish head-dress, or embroider a cur- 
tain, than to be familiar with the classics. Whence 
comes it that a sedate votary of the muses, who mute- 
ly moils in the mines of literature, cannot present his 
real sentiments {of ever so respectful a cast) to the un- 
derstandings of that sex in the vehicle of elegant lan- 
guage, and in such expressions as comport with an ac- 
curate and familiar acquaintance with the practical 
principles of philology? Suppose one of this condi- 
tion has a desire to cultivate an acquaintance with an 
individual of that sex, by whose languishment of form 
or moving he is pleasingly ingratiated, and that for 
that purpose he chooses to direct her a card in as ele- 
gant y«t intelligible a style as he is capable of, to 
which also shall be superadded the blandishments of 



356 

oratory. Shall he have a reply ? Shall he be noticed 
with any degree of respect r Shall he be understood ? 
Shall he be regarded as one who aims to treat that per- 
son ingenuously and sympathetica! !y as an intelligent 
person having common information of her native lan- 
guage ? And shall he not rather be despised for pre- 
suming to communicate his ideas in such a way ? In- 
deed he shall be reckoned a novice in the ' ways of tlve 
world!' shall indeed be held in derision for that which 
is literally to the object addressed, a piece of gibber- 
ish ! It is truly a subject of regret that the love of 
philosophy should exclude one from civil society; yet 
this is a state of things perfectly conformable to the 
views and wishes of the vulgar minions of aristocracy. 
That the finest and fairest part of the creatiou should 
be always immersed in vulgarity ; that in females deli- 
cacy of form should be deemed an adequate substitute 
for developement of intellectual excellence, and a nice 
outside for an improved understanding and liberal 
heart, is seriously to be deplored. It is very unnatu- 
ral, perhaps impossible, for the serious and contempla- 
tive to use some coarse hacknied mechanic processes 
to communicate their sentiments, their wishes, or emo- 
tions ; while it were not only easy but improving to 
make use of literature for such purpose. That which 
exercises the mind as much as the senses, and calls to 
early trials the highest faculties of our nature, is really 
delightsome to speculatory persons as a medium of 
such enunciation : whereas the stiff formal ways in use 
amongst the crowd, are disgusting, and repel the ac- 
quiescence of the heart. 

Those vague symbolical formalities, that have no 
other original than the caprice of those who have gone 
before us, encumber the intercourse of the sexes with 
modes forbidding to the considerate. 

I would not be thought to upbraid with their igno- 
rance and indocility those whose fate has been beset 



357 



with a succession of such circumstances as are repres- 
sive of all learning, an 1 which utterly extinguish or 
misapply curiosity. But I think it not an illaudable 
wish to apprize them of the importance of a proper ap- 
plication of their faculties while now it is in their pow- 
er to meliorate their condition in this respect ; to awak- 
en an attendance to this subject in persons who ha\e 
influence to enlarge female cultivation ; and to justly 
expose that contracted sentiment, that hacknied say- 
ing, * girls ought not to have so much learning as boys' 
than which none can be more puerile. Some reco - 
mend very punctiliously to apportion and limit the 
studies of females : as if they should say " needle- 
work, plain sewing, embroidery, penmanship, reading, 
and simple arithmetic, are all that women ought to 
learn :" they speak of the pursuits of scholastic esta- 
blishments. But does not every faculty of their soul, 
every latent endowment of their nature, require cul- 
ture and supervision? Give their mind general im- 
provement; particularly set it right in morals, and it 
will of course betake itself to a diligent employment 
of its faculties. The female mind requires universal 
improvement ; and needs the same thorough cultiva- 
tion as that of the male. What is said of the compa- 
rative urgency of cultivating them, is very fallacious 
and very illusory. When it is said ' girls ought not to 
have so much learning as boys,' this should be consi- 
dered as put rashly, in a very doubtful sense. There 
are indeed certain arts and sciences of a masculine 
appropriation, which in the ordinary course of things 
in the civilized world at large, women are never called 
to make a practical application of; such as navigation, 
mechanics, geometry, &c. and of which therefore they 
may not properly give up any considerable part of their 
time to the study. But what time they do not appro- 
priate to the pursuit of these objects, they should em- 
ploy in studying other themes that are more useful in 



358 

their particular conditions: and while the boys are 
studying the mathematics, astronomy, navigation, me- 
chanics, surveying, &c. the girls should be diligently 
applying their studies to the grammar of their native 
language, universal grammar, ancient history, logic, 
metaphysics. They require as much study, as great a 
quantity of learning, however it may vary in its qua- 
lity. There is no time for them to lose; there is the 
same length for them to go to the perfection of their 
faculties. In such an arrangement of things, they 
have the chance to be more critical philologists and ju- 
dicious moralists than the boys. Not that their facul- 
ties require any less exercise in order to give them 
the same degree of aptness and facility in operation, 
or extent of comprehension ; nor that as intelligent 
agents they need less improvement, for otherwise we 
make them an inferior rank of beings, or else the soul 
is inferior to the body. It is quite a c\nmon notion 
that it is inconsistent with the propriety of the female 
character to be addicted to close thought and reason- 
ing: that they are more pleasant companions if not 
encumbered with any heavy concerns of reflection ; and 
that thoughtfulness is highly unbecoming a lady of 
fashion. There is considered, however, a difference of 
rank ; and a kitchen-maid or a washer may with more 
seeming propriety appear considerate and studious: a 
drudge or waiter may be allowed to think deeply, and 
shew some marks of a speculatory frame of mind. But 
the appearance of it exquisitely deforms a lady of qua- 
lity Such would grossly shock a circle o( the choice 
%vares of the specie?. Light thoughts and superficial 
remarks of things are the most fashionable traits of the 
female character. But let me ask who they make 
them more agreeable companions to? To the vulgar 
only : for to such as arc refined they are no longer 
pleasing than they exemplify what is correspondent 
to the favorite exercise of mind, of such skillful and 



359 

considerate observers. They are those who are criti- 
cal and speculator j that are fitted to please and capti- 
vate the affections of others that are ; for they only can 
reflectively and thoroughly sympathize with them. 
The society of the thoughtful pleases the thoughtful ; 
and vacant minds please vacant minds, in their socie- 
ty. In the first place, the society of women more or 
less attracts all. Now if it be proper for us all to be 
vacant-minded, it is proper for women to be so. For 
the more those who associate together assimilate each 
other's views and capacities, the more harmonious is 
the society. 

There are many reasons why women should not on- 
ly be addicted to serious thought, but possess extensive 
erudition ; among which there is none perhaps more 
weighty than that the first part of the education of chil- 
dren falls principally upon their hands The study 
of metaphysick aud physiology is signally appropriate 
to their stations. 

The negligent and careless manner in which our fe- 
males are educated, is seen also in their ignorant and 
pert behavior ; their scornful and rude carriage towards 
strangers and studious persons, net unlike that of ob- 
streperous house dogs that incessantly berattle pa^s^rs 
by. who carry any appearance to which they :>.» e unused. 
Hence arises coquetry, the barbarous recre-mon ofil- 
luding and tantalizing men. Even assault* of the 
coarsest insolence sometimes from this quarter shock 
the surprised feelings of the considerate observer as 
he passes among them When a man passes a house 
and hears from a window a peal o[f horse-laugh burst- 
ing from female observers of some pecuUaFity 3hn his 
gait or personal appearance, he is constrained to infer 
a gross deficiency in their early education, wherein 
moral principles seem to have had no participation at 
all but as names to excite contempt, ft ^ pity that in 
the most tender and elegant part of the human family 



360 

the cultivation of sympathy should be abandoned ; 
which surely we cannot suppose to have any great de- 
gree in those who do not scruple to mimic a stran- 
ger's oddities, in reproach: yet instances of th.s de- 
portment are not unknown in the civilized world. 
If urbanity is not to begin with the soft enchant- 
ing community that presides in the domestic scene, 
where is it to emerge r Here, I say, the mocking 
and malignant arts of coquetry take their rise, i. e. 
in a total want of thought of other's feelings ; and 
this immediately results from a contracted view, by a 
profane repression of the intellectual energy in early 
youth. This defect of education likewise shews itself 
in the almost universal pursuit of pageantry and fash- 
ions. Due cultivation of mind would tend directly to 
dissipate this flaring envelope of vanity. But there 
comes a time of reflection in age, when the stimula of 
juvenile amusements are exhausted, when the mind 
must feed on reflections, or sink into mere incipience 
and dotage ; and when these reflections must either be 
pleasant or unpleasant. If the understanding have not 
been cultivated in early life by inuring it in a proper 
manner to those exercises that tend to make its opera- 
tions habitual and pleasing, these reflections assuredly 
will not be pleasant But if the moral powers have 
not been properly improved, and by this sort of negli- 
gence the memory be charged with abuses of talents, 
privileges, means and opportunities of doing good, 
these reflections must be pointedly contristating. 
Moreover the most delightsome reflections arise from 
a sedulous improvement of all our talents to the best 
use practicable. The most sublime, durable, and sub- 
stantial enjoyment of our existence, is in our reflections. 
Here is the depositary of all the variety in nature. 
The mind is the most noble, the most elevated, and 
the most precious part pf the human system ; and the 
pleasures of it are more secure, constant, easy of ac~ 



361 



cess, and extensively diversified, than those of any 
other part : which part, if we have earnestly cultivat 
ed, and inured ourselves to contemplation in the earl; 
part of life, we fail not to inherit a copious and ampl 
round of solid entertainment, to the irremeable verge 03 
eur existence. 

Rule XXII If you determine to travel extensively 
either for amusement or for science, set out with 
no particula> suspense in your considerations of 
matrimony as an object of your practical course. 

The design of this rule is to avert anxiety, and there- 
by give that freedom to thought, indispensable to 
tne advantage of observation. In application to 
this, if your choice be not conclusively fixed upon 
celibacy ; either enter into such a conditional con- 
tract of future establishment, within the round of 
your acquaintance, as you can complacently rely 
upon; or else decisively defer the determination 
to another place and time. But a mind that is 
wandering and at random with respect to these 
concerns, or under any particular entanglement 
of suspense, is not likely to get much s*»lid im- 
provement by exploring the varieties of different 
regions and communities. 

Rule XXII I. Contemplate the relation of the wants 
and feelings of other individuals of your species, 
to your own. 

This improves sympathy* These wants and feel- 
ings are of two classes : 1 . Natural, original ; such 
as are the very same in every human creature: 
2. Habitual ; such as rise out of custom and pe- 
culiar courses of indulgence in diverse indivi- 
duals. 

HtjLE XXIV* Practice the social and private virtues, 
3i 



362 

Social virtue, in its sublimest sense may be defined* 
intentionally advancing the greatest good of the sys- 
tem of percipient beings with whom we can intelligen- 
tially reciprocate any emotion. In a little more limit- 
ed sense, it maybe called that sort of voluntary action 
that goes directly to promote the good of our fellow 
creatures. Otherwise, it is doing to others in every 
particular case, that which we are apt to desire them 
to do to us. 

The social virtues are philanthropy, hospitality, gra- 
titude, justice, patriotism, charity, meekness. 

Philanthropy is, speculatively, that emotion of love 
and sympathetic regard to beings of the human species, 
and in fact to percipient beings in general, that moves 
us to desire their preservation and happiness. Active- 
ly, it is beneficence. Hospitality is kindness and be- 
nignity practised particularly upon strangers; as pro- 
tection, sustenance, employment, information, direc- 
tion, &c. ; and is no more than active philanthropy 
qualified to this sort of objects. Gratitude is, specula- 
tively, the emotions of love and good will towards those 
who have been the intentional causes of any good to 
us : actively, the practice of such actions as tend to 
confer a return or retribution of such good, whether in 
the same kind or otherwise. Justice is giving, in 
thought, determination, word, or deed, their exact due 
to all volitive agents that come within the sphere of 
our reciprocation ; i. e rendering the appropriate as- 
signment to merit and demerit. In a larger sense, it 
is doing unto others what we would have them do unto 
us ; and this is justly the due of one sympathetic be- 
ing from another. In this sense it comprehends the 
essence of all the social virtues ; which are but various 
modifications of it But in the sense in which it here 
stands distinguished from the rest of the social virtues 
it is cequimenti and doing to others what ought to be 
done to ourselves in the like cases, in reference to the 



3f53 

good of the universe* Yet in its inflictive application 
it is not to be practiced by an individual, but by the 
collected power and choice of a community. To turn 
it out of this channel, in civil society, is to convert it 
to injustice. 

Patriotism has been thought not to be reconcileable 
to philanthropy, and indeed it is not in any other point 
of view than considered as a prevailing attachment to 
a particular nation on account of its having adopted a 
frame of government which is signally favorite and 
applicative of philanthropy^ and actively, the practice 
of such things out of a zealous attachment £o, and ve- 
neration of, such frame of government, as are necessa- 
ry to those purposes of its support, which we wish all 
mankind, friends and foes, to acquiesce in and impli- 
<;itly£ibserve. 

Charity is exercising compassion and beneficence oft 
those who are in want of the comforts of life, or of any 
desideratum whose privation makes them unhappy. 

Meekness is negative and actual ; as 1. Forbearance 
of resentment ; and 2. Forgiving injuries, Clemency 
also is included in this virtue. 

What are called private virtues are those modes and 
recourses necessary for preserving tha health of the 
body and of the mind ; for preserving the order of the 
trams of thought regular, clear, and serene; and for 
acquiring and retaining the ascendancy and controul 
of the necessary materials for executing all purposes 
of social virtues. They are patience, industry, forti- 
tude, temperance, continence, cleanliness, frugality, 
&c. 

Let the person who conducts education, keep close 
to these few plain rules 1 have set down in the pre- 
ceding pages, for each stage of life; and I hesitate not 
io assert that he will find his work not only without 
insuperable difficulties, but to prosper beyond what 
from a cursory advertence to diem he is apprized ofi 



365 




MYEJCITCX. 



A MORAL CATECHISM. 



Question. What is the chief end of man? 

Answer. Happiness. 

Q. In what sense is happiness the chief end of man? 

A. Happiness is the chief end of man in this sense, 
that it is the chief end of his pursuit, the prevailing ob- 
ject in which all his wishes terminate, and that to 
which his desires and aversions have continual refer- 
ence. 

Q. What is happiness? 

A Contentment or satisfaction. 

Q. What is contentment or satisfaction ? 

A. The possession of such a state of mind as from a 
clear view of the realities that environ us, and to which 
our capacities are competent, precludes the prevalence 
of desire over serene pleasure. 

Q. What does contentment immediately depend up- 
on? 

A. Such a contemperament of the motions in the 
human constitution, as precludes violent desire ; inso- 
much that a greater degree of pleasure than of unea- 
siness, is in that constitution. 
31* 




366 

tj. Is happiness capable of being increased? 

A. It is capable of being made more permanent and 
more sublime. 

Q. How can it be made more permanent ? 

A. By rendering more permanent the causes upon 
"which it depends : and this is done chiefly by expung- 
ing what is fluctuating, from the usual exciting objects 
of desire, and reducing them in number. 

Q. How can it be made more sublime ? 

A. By abstracting and subliming the relations of de- 
sire, and by relaxing its attachments to sensible ob- 
jects. The principal secret of procuring the greatest 
degree of happiness our constitution admits of, con- 
sists in reducing the objects that prevail to move de- 
sire, to such as are within the controul of our power; 
so that those objects shall be the pleasure of doin* 
good, the pleasure of knowledge, and the pleasure of 
exercising the highest faculties. 

Q, What proceeding is that by which men bring 
about these effects ? 

A. Exercise of the power of voluntary thinking. 

Q. Is it this alone that is sufficient to carry man to 
this consummation? 

A. No ; but this is the beginning of what is within 
v his power to contribute towards it, and is first neces- 
sary. The eftect of his actions upon other beings has 
great influence either to retard or accelerate this ac- 
complishment. 

<Q- What rule is that by which man is to be. guided 
in the measures of his conduct, in order to attain th? 
greatest degree of happiness he is capable of attaiv- 
ing ? 

A. The law «f the universe* 



367 

law of the universe « 

y which all the motions in the i 
verse are directed and have their constant effects. 

Q. But what does the law of the universe essential- 
ly consist in ? 

A. It essentially consists in the active and passive 
powers of all the beings in the great system of sub- 
stances whereby they are capacitated to act upon 
each other and be influenced by each other, according 
to certain measures, and the events which constitute 
these operations have tlveir continued causality. 

Q. What is the enforcement of the law of the uni* 
ve rse ? 

A. A chain of causes and effects that invariably fol- 
low one another throughout duration and space. In a 
general view, " the state of the universe in this present 
instant, may be considered as the effect of the state 
ef the universe in the preceding instant and the cause 
of the state of the universe in the next succeeding la- 
stank" 

Q. Is not the laiv of the universe exceedingly im- 
plicit ? 

A. It is so ; and in its axioms as much diversified as 
are the kinds of beings which compose the universe; 
in which varieties it is the same that some have called 
the "laws of nature." 

Q. In what manner do the massy pa* ts of visible nu* 
ture, obey this law ? 

A. By attraction and gravitation. Herein this im- 
mutable lav/, which the plastic original of all impressed 
upon each particle or atom of substance, so operates 
upon the bulky portions of matter as to hold intervolv- 
<ed systems of planets and comets in a steady circiri- 
iiota at proportionable distances about more massjr 



368 

globes, whose attractive influence balances their cen- 
trifugal tendency. 

Q. Jlre not those of the same kind of properties that 
exhibit their effects in the operations of smaller pieces 
of matter? 

A. The very same : thus stones thrown to a certain 
distance from its surface, directly redound to the earth 
by virtue of their gravitating tendency. Also flame 
ascends from the earth's surface, and likewise smoke 
till it reaches a region of the atmosphere where air of 
the same volume is of the same weight with its own. 
Water is invincibly prone to seek a level, or to be con- 
tinually gliding, one particle over another, till all be- 
come level. 

Q. How does the law of the universe affect the dif" 
ferent races of percipient beings ? 

A. In general by uniformly subjecting them all to 
the consequences that flow from the property of per- 
ceptivity. 

Q. Jlre all the races of perceiving beings social \ 
and have fellow feeling for the same species ? 

A. Most of those we are acquainted with, particu- 
larly mankind, are gregarious, and have peculiar feel- 
ings among themselves in regard one individual for an- 
other. 

Q. Does not the laiv of the universe annex to a cer- 
tain species of organization peculiar potters, active 
and passive, and to those powers certain effects, which 
are inseparable from their operations and relations? 

A. It does ; and we find that man has some powers 
and properties which far exceed those of all other ra- 
ces which we are acquainted with, and in consequence 
of them is subject to, and capable of, a great number of 
feelings and actions, which never come within the 
comprehension of those. 



369 

Q. Are not the tendencies of our voluntary actions 
imposed by the law of the universe ? 

A. Certainly they are ; and we can no more alter 
those tendencies than we can alter the motions of the 
planets, suns, and comets, 

Q. But if the very causes of men 9 s actions, as of all 
things, are the natural ascendancy of certain proper- 
ties impressed upon atoms by the origina y principle 
of mobility , what skill can man put into practice to 
shape his course, what counsel can he take, what has 
he to do ? 

A. Man has liberty ; therefore man has much to do. 
Q. What is liberty ? 

A. A power to do or forbear to do what one will. 
Q. What is will? 

A. A movement in the sensorium, contrary to per- 
ception . 

Q. What is the sensorium, so called by the physio- 
logists ? 

A. A substance that distinguishes organized loco- 
moving systems from vegetables, and is supposed to be 
the constituent matter of the brain and nerves ; its 
centre being the central part of the brain. 

Q. What is that which immediately causes the mo- 
tion of the sensorium ? 

A A substance supposed to be secreted from the at- 
mosphere, and to be the same as electric fluid. 

Q. What are the powers of the sensorium ? 

A. They are four ; the power of irritation, the power 
of sensation, the power of association, and the power 
of volition, from which follows voluntary action. The 
results of these several powers exerted are respective- 
ly called modes of the sensorium, or of sensorial ope- 
ration. 



370 

Q What tt*e these modes ? 

A. Irritation is a movement in the extreme parts of 
the sensorium that reside in the secondary organs of 
motion and sense, in cons^uence of the appulse of ex- 
ternal bodies. Sensation is a movement of the central 
parts of the sensorium or of the whole of it, beginning 
in the extreme parts residing in the secondary organs 
©f motion and sense. Association is such a connect- 
ing of two or more motions of different fibres as makes 
them simultaneous, or follow one another in immediate 
consecution. Volition is a movement of the central 
parts of the sensorium, or of the whole of it, beginning 
in the centre, and terminating in some of the extreme 
parts which reside in the secondary organs of motion 
and sense. Volition is called the act of the will ; it is 
the beginning of voluntary exertion, and whar&o^ver 
action follows it in consecution of dependency, is call- 
ed voluntary action. 

Q. What is that which determines the will ? 

A. Desire. The greatest uneasiness of desire at the 
present moment Felt, usually determines the will rath- 
er than the idea of any future good however clearly 
discerned, or rationally adjudged to be a greater good 
than is the gratification of the present desire. But in 
a prudent man these are collateral ; the greatest desire 
is that of the greatest good. 

Q. If then the successive motives that determine the 
will in the actions that make up our lives, have their 
place in the concatenation of effects that comes from 
originat impressions upon substance, and sometimes 
seen: ing chance, and if a concow se of extraneous causes 
may make one desire to prevail rather than another t 
and it is out of the province of will to determine which 
at any particular time shall be the greatest desire, 
where is liberty? 



371 

A. Liberty comes after the act of the will. Liberty 
being a power to do, and to forbear to do, what one 
will, (to forbear being equally in one's power as to do y ) 
it is evident that it essentially consists in these two 
things: 1. An indifi'erency hi the operative faculties 
to action or rest ; and 2. A power to suspend the ope- 
rative faculties from proceeding consecutively to the 
first volition, into the execution of what the will has 
therein directed, and, in the interval, to deliberate up- 
on its eligibility. Here then is liberty. Here is the 
highest degree of freedom we can form any notion of. 
Man then is a free agent in those cases wherein he has 
this power to hold his operative faculties in suspense 
so far as respects a particular act of his will. For 
when man exercises this power to forbear to do what 
he has willed, and, suspending the consecution of his 
action, deliberates and applies his reasoning power to 
the balancing of the consequences of those respective 
actions which are equally m his power, lie becomes the 
modifyer of his own motives, — the motives that deter- 
mine his will. For if the last determination be dif- 
ferent from the first volition, it is beyond question tiiat 
that suspension and deliberation constitute the effi- 
cient cause of it. This state of mind and ascendancy 
of the motive, are brought about by the man's free ex- 
ercise of the power to forbear to act ff we ex- 
tend his freedom a hair's breadth farther than this, 
we give man the power of creation: for we cannot 
conceive man to have any higher power than this, 
without supposing him to havp a power equal to the 
renovation of the whole system of things. Am\ alsa 
this is the highest degree of liberty and all the free 
agency of which we are competent to an adequate and 
distinct idea; whether any other degrees of this kind 
of power are possessed by superior beings or no. 

Q. What is morality ? 



i 



37a 

A, Morality is that which is used instead of the word 
ethics, to denote that science which directs us to the 
appropriate means and processes to attain the greatest 
degree of happiness we are capable of ; and in order to 
this end, to improve our active powers to their highest 
perfection in habit : which, for this purpose, takes into 
view not only the specific powers and properties of our 
constitution, and the causality and tendency of our ac- 
tions, but also several measures and rules to direct our 
conduct towards the attainment of that end. The 
main business of its inculcation is to define the parti- 
cular duties that arise from our several relations to oth- 
er parts of the universe, especially to individuals of 
our own race ; and to render those duties pleasant 

Q. Does not morality draw all its dogmas from the 
law of the universe ? 

A. It does. The law of the universe contains the 
principles of all the maxims of ethics. 

Q. What particular part of the law of the universe 
is that upon which is grounded the reason of our sense 
of obligation towards other living creatures i 

A. Sympathy 
Q. What is sympathy ? 
A. A species of imitation. 
Q What is imitation ? 

A. Acting over, or copying, such movement as is 
acted, or conceived to be acted, by another subject. 
Q. How many sorts of imitation are the e ? 
A. Three sorts ; physical, sensitive, ana voluntary, 
Q. What is physical imitation ? 

A. Physical imitation is that which takes place 
anions the parts of an organized animated system, in- 
dei cudentl) of a perception of the movement that id 
imitated : as the fibres of the lace imitate the stomach 



373 

in a vivid action when the latter is excited by a copi- 
ous meal. The salivary glands are imitated by the 
pancreas in the degree and manner of their action. 
This sort also is called sympathy by the physicians, 
and is called reverse sympathy when one part imitates 
or follows another in its change of motion or course, 
yet acts contrarily in the degree of the movement to 
which it changes : as the nerves of the head, on the 
quiescence or decreased motion of the stomach, in- 
crease in action ; and vice versa. 

Q. What is sensitive imitation ? 

A. It is the imitating or acting over, by our nerves 
of sense (or sensitive fibres) the motions of correspond- 
ent parts of other individual systems, in consequence 
of the conception or idea of their existence in those 
foreign subjects. Thus on seeing the arm of an indi- 
vidual bruised or violently torn, we feel pain in a cor- 
respondent part of ourselves, by reason of the nervous 
fibres of our own arm approximating an imitation of 
those of the wounded limb, in their movement. See- 
ing one we judge to be cheerful or serenely delighted, 
we feel serene pleasure obsequiously to the irritation 
of the significant concomitant. And thus also the ap- 
pearance of a depressed countenance makes us sad. 

Q. What is voluntary imitation ? 

A. That which is free, and follows volition : as mon- 
keys imitating the actions of men ; one man imitating 
the manners or pursuits of another, — as aping one's 
style, gait, dress, &c. 

Q. What is that species of imitation which is called 
sympathy, as in the concerns of morality it relates to 
our accountability as social beings ? 

A. Sensitive imitation. Sensitive imitation is that 
sort which in this view takes the name of sympathy ; 
in which we consider ourselves put in the places of oth- 

33 



374 

ers in regard of those particular feelings, the ideas of 
which produce such movement. This is refined and 
extended as the operations of intellect are improved, 
and may be called reflective sympathy ; when we sym- 
pathize with the reflections and enter into the views 
oCothers. When this concerns those things that stand 
immediately connected ' with voluntary exertion, it is 
sometimes called moral sympathy. 

Q. What is the distinction of sympathy when ap- 
plied in the concerns of morality ? 

A. Sympathy, as applied in the concerns of morali- 
ty, is distinguished into direct and indirect. Direct 
sympathy is assimilation of our thoughts and feelings, 
or emotions, to those of another- Indirect sympathy 
is the like conformity of our thoughts and feelings, or 
emotions,, to those of a third party, in the consequence 
to thoughts, feelings, and emotions, in another party, 
and which, in relation to the latter, may be either con- 
genial or repugnant,— as gratitude for good received, 
and resentment for evil ; when we are said to sympa- 
thize with the approbation or with the disapprobation 
of others. Thus indirect sympathy has a double refer- 
ence ; direct sympathy, only a single and immediate 
reference. 

Q. Does our vcluntary power extend to our thoughts? 

A. We have the power to direct and determine the 
Trains of our thought : and what follows this direction, 
is called voluntary thinking. It is also called reflec- 
tion ; it being a diverse operation upon those ideas we 
get by May of our senses ; the possibilities of the varie- 
ties of which operation are called faculties. 

Q. How many sorts of voluntary thinking are 
inert ? 

A. Discerning, comparing, compounding, attention, 
contemplation, study, abstracting, recollection, and 
reasoning which is compounded of several of the oth- 



375 

crs. These are called the modes of voluntary think- 
ing. There is also resverie which is merely an intent 
continued course of voluntary thinking, comprising 
any or all of the foregoing modes directed to some de- 
terminate theme, wherein the energy of the voluntary 
exertion excludes all other sensorial operations in eve? 
ry instance that does not conspicuously coincide with 
the train that immediately occupies the mind. Memo- 
ry and imagination are not voluntary ; but may be call- 
ed modes of sensitive thinking, although ideas that 
have been voluntary are sometimes resuscitated, til 
their trains. 

Q. By wkatdist tactions do you define these several 
modes ? 

A* Discerning is perceiving the relation and mutu- 
al habitude of two ideas, in their difference or like- 
ness, — as their proportion, &c. Comparing is taking 
a view of two ideas or objects, one in reference to an- 
other, in order to determine their relative aspects. 
Compounding is considering two or more of those ap- 
pearances successively in addition one to another. 
Attention is a more than ordinary alert observation of 
any perception or succession of thoughts ; or otherwise 
a circumspect voluntary notice of the train of our per- 
ceptions and reflections. Contemplation is the retain- 
ing of one idea or train of ideas under a single view of 
the understanding for a .considerable time together. 
..Study is a deliberate curious examining of an idea or 
number of ideas on all sides and in all habitudes in 
which they may be considered. This is made up of 
attention, comparing,- and discerning. Abstracting is 
the forming of general ideas that represent whole 
classes and races of beings ; which is done by separat- 
ing any particular idea or select contexture of ideas 
from those circumstances of connection which deter- 
mine it to a subject of particular existence, and consi- 
dering it as representative of a large number of indi- 



376 

vidual beings which correspond in that particular. Re- 
collection is the voluntary seeking to revive ideas for- 
merly impressed ; and voluntary excitation of all pos- 
sible accompaniments that lead to such revival. Rea- 
soning is the process for discerning the agreement or 
disagreement of two ideas remote from each other 
whose aspects do not at once appear, by the agreement 
or disagreement of two or more other ideas immedi- 
ately compared together ; thus deducing and deriving 
propositions at present unknown, from other proposi- 
tions previously known and established ; and consists 
of four parts, or stages. 1. Finding out intermediate 
ideas for the purpose,— these intermediate ideas are 
called proofs ; 2. Laying them together in just order: 
3. Perceiving their agreement or disagreement ; 4. 
Drawing the conclusion ; which is determining the 
agreement or disagreement of the two extreme ideas 
thereby. Therefore this is made up of attention, com- 
paring, compounding, and discerning- Besides these, 
there is a state of mind called resverie, which isa train 
of voluntary thinking that surmounts the irritation of 
external objects of sense, so far as they counterview a 
certain point which for the time bei»ig concentrates the 
whole energy of contemplation. This excludes the 
intervention of all other notices that do not fall with- 
in an experienced connection with, or resolve them- 
selves into, the immediate object of this voluntary en- 
ergy. Remembrance isa revival of any of those ap- 
pearances, images, ideas of sensation or reflection, that 
have before existed in the mind. This is done with- 
out the aid of volition and is incompatible with it : 
therefore this is not voluntary thinking. So neither is 
imagination, which is a succession of ideas which do 
not immediately arise by way of volition, sensation, 
or irritation, but rather by association, whereby differ- 
ent ones are made to appear than those which have 
been formerly perceived, by the various coalescing of 



377 

iuch particulars as have been before experienced by 
any or all the ways of thinking. 

Q. What is conscience} 

A. That sense whereby we distinguish right and 
wrong in our voluntary actions, and whereby delight 
Is accompanied with the idea of right, and pain or un- 
easiness with that of wrong; which is no other than 
the faculty of discerning applied to the relation of our 
€ree actions to a rule. It is also called the moral sense, 
and the moral faculty. 

Q. Wliat is conscience derived from ? 

A. Sympathy. 

Q. What is right and wrong ? 

A. The direct and confessed tendency of an action 
to produce happiness in any of our fellow creatures, or 
to produce pain ; or else, in its ultimate efficiency, of 
>one action to produce more happiness than pain, and 
rof another to produce more pain than happiness. 

Q. What then is the rule to which our actions are 
referred as to a standard ? 

A. The law of*the universe. So, as one has more 
extended knowledge and adequate conceptions of this 
.part of the law of the universe which relates to the ac- 
tions of men, the greater is his power of conscience, 
that is, the keener his sensibility of right and wrong. 

Q. How does the law of the universe determine the 
right and wrong of actions? 

A. By fixing and bounding their tendency ; direct- 
ing it to the ultimate production of pleasure or pain in 
others ; and making some actions to be the causes of 
happiness and others to be the causes of misery ; whence 
it is said to command some actions to be done in order 
{ to avoid the misery to which they regularly tend. And 
ithe relation of those actions which/ conformably to this 

32* 



378 

placit of the law of the universe tend to produce hap- 
piness, is called right, or moral good ; and the actions 
themselves virtuous actions ; and the relation of those 
actions to the same principle of the law of the uni- 
verse, which by being contrary to this command tend 
to produce pain or misery, is called wrong, or moral 
evil ; and the actions themselves vicious actions. 
Q. What is passion when ajiplied to morality ? 

A. Passion is an emotion originating either in irri- 
tation, perception, or memory, which partakes of more 
than one of the operations of the sensorium ; in which 
either sensation or volition predominates, and is there- 
fore either sensitive or voluntary. There are nume- 
rous and various passions. Those passions in which 
voluntary motion predominates, may be denominated 
voluntary passions ; and those in which sensation of 
pleasure or pain predominates, maybe denominated 
sensitive passions. 

Q. How can this definition be true ? 

A. In every passion is voluntary thought and sensi- 
tive thought ; one or the other of which predominat- 
ing, must properly fix the distinctive character of the 
passion, and denominate it either voluntary or sensi- 
tive. Irritation has no share in a passion, actually ; 
and association has less to do than the other two 
modes. There is unquestionably attention, for with- 
out attending to the objects that cause emotion, no 
emotion could be developed. Attention is a voluntary 
act ; therefore passion participates, in some degree, of 
voluntary exertion. Surprize, and all its degrees, are 
affections of the mind, which are indifferent to the ac- 
companiment of either pleasure or pain, and therefore 
surprize is not specifically a passion. It moreover 
may accompany a passion : it frequently accompanies 
fear. Surprize is an incident of our ideas as they flow 
or arise in succession ; and passion is an incident of 
•ur sensorial motions. 



379 

1J. How are the passions distributed ? 

A. The passions are either primary or compounded, 

Q. What are the primary passions ? 

A. The primary passions are those which are origi- 
nal, and have their distinctive characters without any 
mixture with other particular passions. They are de- 
sire, love, anger, joy, hope, fear, sorrow, hatred, pity, 
despair, grief, envy, shame. 

Q. What is desire ? 

A. Desire is uneasiness felt in the want of pleasura- 
ble sensation, and incitement of volition towards the 
procurement of that which is the cause of such plea- 
sure. This is the approach towards volition ; the first 
struggle of the voluntary power with sensation, to- 
wards any object. This might therefore be called a 
voluntary passion : but it being uneasiness, partakes 
of sensation, aud is painful ; which also being its be- 
ginning, and first excitement, it is probably with more 
propriety termed a sensitive passion. 

Q. What is love ? 

x\. Love is the emotion that accompanies the thought 
of an object the possession of which is apt to delight. 
Love is mostly a gentle sensation, originating from an 
idea of memory, or imagination, or irritation. 

Q. What is anger ? 

A. Anger is a thought of an injury received, volun- 
tarily kept in view, with strong impulsions of the vo- 
luntary energy towards the purpose of revenge, i. e* 
towards a determination on the return of injury for it. 
This is obviously a voluntary passion ; yet it is seen 
also to participate of sensation, in that it is a painful 
<and uneasy emotion. Anger, in its intensity, sup- 
presses sympathy. 

Q. What is joy? 



880 

A. Joy is distinguished by the assurance of some 
present possession or event which is capable of caus- 
ing delight. Joy is principally a pleasing sensation, 
rising from a sensitive idea, either in memory, ima- 
gination, or perception. 

Q. What is hope ? 

A. Hope is that emotion which attends the thought 
of the probable possession of some future good. This 
is a pleasing sensation, and differs from joy in these 
two respects, it has not so perfect assurance with it, 
wherefore the sensation is less intense; and always 
has reference to something future, as its object. 

Q. What is fear? 

A. Fear is what attends a thought of some evil that 
is likely to befal, or of the approach of some object 
that has power to produce pain in us. Fear is a pain- 
ful sensation. It has several degrees and modifica- 
tions, which are called awe, panic, terror, horror, cow- 
ardice, pusillanimity, laziness. 

Q. What is sorrow ? 

A. Sorrow is a painful emotion attending the thought 
of some good which is lost or prevented, and gives 
place to uneasiness. The lowest degree of it is regret, 
which implies a thought of some action which it was 
once in our power to do, the opportunity whereof we 
no longer have, the benefit of which we now want. 

Q. What is hatred? 

A. Hatred is an emotion that prompts us to fly from 
its objects, and is the thought of an object which is apt 
to produce fear, disgust, or pain, of which object we 
generally have at the same time a strong desire to be 
rid of the perception. This though partaking much of 
sensation, is rather a voluntary passion. 

Q. Whatispitij? 



331 

A* Pity is a sympathizing with a being that is in dis- 
tress or trouble ; and is a disagreeable sensation aris- 
ing either out of perception or memory br imagination ; 
also voluntary movement prompting to reflect on that 
distress. 

Q. Whah s despair 9 

A. Despair is that state of mind which with a thought 
of some distant good, unites that of unattainabieness. 
Q. What is grief? 

A Grief is what arises from the thought of some 
present evil, or from the assurance of something be- 
falling us or having befallen us that causes present 
trouble. Grief therefore is the antipode of joy. 

Q* What is envy ? 

A. Envy is an uneasy feeling on the thought of some 
good possessed by another, which we wish to possess, 
and are thereby excluded from ;— when another is 
thought to excel unduly in that whereon we could not 
but value ourselves. 

Q. What is shame ? 

A. Shame is that disagreeable agitation of mind 
which comes from a thought of some action or some 
circumstance of ourselves, which is apt to cause of- 
fence to others, and make us objects of unsocial emo- 
tions in them. 

Q. What are the compounded passions ? 

A. They are combinations and associations of the 
primary passions. They are pride, ambition, avarice, 
jealousy, compunction, and admiration. 

Q. What is pride P 

A. Pride is composed of love and joy and the low- 
€st degree of hatred ; the two first being directed to 
one's self as their moving object, and the latter to oth- 
ers. It also has with it a desire of rule and domina- 



382 

tion. The intensity of this passion suppresses sym- 
pathy. 

Q. What is ambition? 

A. Ambition i9 compounded of desire and hope. 
This is a voluntary passion. 

Q What is avarice ? 

A. Avarice is a compound of desire and fear : de- 
sire of getting gain or money, and fear of losing it 

Q. What is jealousy? 

A. Jealousy consists of a mixture of love, hatred, 
anger, shame, envy 7 and fear. 
Q. What is compunction ? 

A. Compunction is a sort of sorrow and grief which 
have for their moving object the loss of innocence, and 
are excited by the remembrance of actions done by 
ourselves, which are wrong, and of which we disap- 
prove, because they produce or have produced pain in 
others : it has also a mixture of desire to make atone- 
ment for them. This is an effluence ot sympathy. 

Q. What is admiration ? 

A. Admiration is compounded of a mixture of love, 
fear, and joy, to which is joined some degree of that 
which is called surprize, which is the effect of an in- 
stantaneous severing of the train of our ideas by an ab- 
rupt and unexpected irritation, as by the supervention 
of a new or strange object. 

Q. What is obligation ? 

A. A necessity and fitness of the performance of ari 
action, resulting from a dependency ot other beings' 
feelings on our determinations, and of our own upon 
theirs, founded in the nature of things. 

Q. What is obligation deduced from and supported 
by? 



383 

A - Sympathy. Were no society, no obligation 
could be : if but an individual of a kind exist, no such 
thing as obligation to others can exist, because no svm 
pathy. And if numbers exist, if nosympathy, then no 
sense ot obligation, because no apprehension of other*' 
feelings. 

Q. What is meant by being under obligation ? 

A. Being in a relation or condition that makes anv 
particular action necessary, fit and proper, in refJ 
once to our greatest good 

, Q. Can a man be under an obligation to himself} 

A. Strictly not ; unless he divide himself intoaaent 
and object and personify the reciprocal relations of his 
parts. Hence it is only figuratively that a man is said 
to owe an obl.gat.on to himself, when is a necessity 
and a fitness in certain actions in his power, to pro- 
mote his own private interest exclusive of all consider 
ration of that of others 

Q. What are the limits of obligation ? 

A. Those of power and knowledge. Obligation can 
extend no farther than power and knowledge That 
no obligation can be where is no possibility to perform 
an action, is obvious; for there can be no fitness in 
what is not possible. Knowledge of anv kind of ar 
tion, and of the necessity of it for our enjoyment as 
rational creatures, may be reckoned essential to the 
power. W.thout a knowledge of the tendency of an 
action, obl.gat,on cannot exist For obligation being 

f the consequence of a dependency of our feelings of 
the impression made upon others by an action If our 
power as we 1 as that of others' feeli igs on that action 
cannot be where we can realize no sifch depenHancy ' 
winch is the case when we cannot aoprehend the ten- 
dency of an action. For an obligation means an ur- 
gency, from a raUonal fitness, thtt a man should go 



384 

about the performance of a certain action, or a certain 
sort of action. Now this supposes the man to be ra- 
tional, and to have knowledge of the object and habi- 
tude of the action; and the delirious, the insane, the 
lunatic, are not said to be under any obligation. 
Q. What examples of obligation can be produced ? 

A. In regard to promises, in the first place we have 
obligation to deliberate upon the effect of a promise, 
and our ability to perform it. Secondly, when we 
have once made a promise to any of our fellow crea- 
tures, we are under obligation to perform it, so far as 
we are able. We are under a general obligation to 
speak truth ; and also to do to others what is reasona- 
ble they should do to us in the like cases. 

Q. Are there not certain cases wherein we have ob- 
ligation to deceive other* ? 

A. To preserve life in others or ourselves we have 
sometimes obligation to deceive a delirious or an in- 
sane person ; as when we take weapons from a mani- 
ac and conceal them ; or persuade a man in a raging 
fever that we give him water, when we give him some 
potion that is necessary to save his life. Also to pre- 
vent another from committing murder, and preserve 
our own life to be useful to other>, it is sometimes ne- 
cessary to deceive that class of the insane who being 
in power ask the question what is our secret belief 
concerning things that are doubtful, while they stand 
ready to take away life if we do not profess a propos- 
ed creed. It is necessary and fit to deceive these on 
such occasions. In many instances the reverse is ca- 
lamitous to the feelings of rational and considerate 
persons with whom we stand connected. In a few 
such extreme cases it is right to speak contrary to 
what we think? 

Q. What is duty ? 



385 

A Any action that we are under obligation to do, 
and any just action that is necessary to enable us fully 
to perform such as we are under obligation to do. Thus 
if it be my duty to fulfil my promises, to requite my 
benefactors, to pay my debts, it is also my duty to pre- 
serve my life, and to protect and defend what belongs 
to me, that I may have the opportunity and means 
wherewith to do those things. 

Q. What is habit? 

A. Facility in, and disposition to the performance of 
any sort of action, whether intellectual or corporeal, 
arising from custom or practice, which is the continued 
repetition of an action. 

Q. What is art ? 

A. A habit in the mind prescribing a systematic ar- 
rangement of causes for the production of certain ef- 
fects, and a consequent power of producing those ef- 
fects readily. 

Q. What is the summary of the true process to at- 
tain our greatest degree of happiness ? 

A. Habitual exercise of our highest faculties, and 
practice of virtue. 

Q. What are our kighest faculties ? 

A. Our intellectual faculties, or powers of reflection. 

Q. What are the highest employments of our highest 
faculties ? 

A. Study, reasoning, abstraction, contemplation of 
abstract ideas, projects of philanthropy, and cultiva- 
tion of sympathy. 

Q. What is cultivation of sympathy ? 

A. The considering of others 9 feelings in. compari- 
son with our own, and governing ourselves by this con- 
sideration in those actions in our power whereby those 
feelings are probably aftected. In this way we are 
33 






386 

said to 'put ourselves in the places of others,'— ar 
* make their cases our own.' 

Q In what manner does the exercise of our high- 
est faculties contf ibnte to the production of our great' 
est degree of enjoy merit ? 

A. By centering our satisfaction in those circum- 
stances of which the modification immediately depends 
upon our own will, or at least is within its influence, 
and which are removed from the contingences of ex- 
ternal fortune. 

Q. What is virtue ? 

A. Any sort of voluntary action, whether intellectu- 
al or corporeal, that intentionally goes to promote the 
good of others, directly or indirectly. 

Q. How many s<,rts of virtue are there r 

A. Two ; called private virtue and social virtue, 

Q. What is the distinction ? 

A. The distinction is, that although all virtue has a 
view to the good of others, there being even in thrift, 
neatness, and industry, a continual reference to The 
feelings of other beings , yet, whereas social virtue has 
the good of others for its primary end, private virtue 
has for its primary end the good of one's self, his fami- 
ly, or kindred. 

Q. /s there no other distinction of virtue ? 

A. Yes. Virtue is distinguished also into specula- 
tive and active. The former reaches no farther than 
the operations of our minds; as contemplation, good 
wishes, good purposes, Ike. The latter proceeds to 
corporeal action that carries those purposes into exe- 
cution. 

Q. What are the social virtues ? 

A The social virtues are philanthropy, hospitality* 
justice, gratitude, patriotism, charity, and meekness. 






387 



Q. What is philanthropy ? 

A. Philanthropy consists in those motions of love 
and good will directed to all beings of trie human spe- 
cies, which have for their objept their preservation, 
well-being, and true happiness. In its practical part 
it is called beneficence. 

Q. What is hospitality ? 

A. Hospitality is philanthropy directed to strangers ; 
as protecting them and providing for their exigences. 

Q. What is justice ? 

A. Justice is rendering to every being; its due. Jus- 
tice is either universal or commutative. Universal 
justice is doing to every voiitive being what we would 
have that being do to us, and in this sense it compre- 
hends all the social virtues Commutative justice is 
doing or forbearing those actions which we feel our- 
selves under special obligation by the law of the uni- 
verse, to do or forbear to do to other beings, in consi- 
deration of something actually done or to be done by 
them to us ; which is doing what we perceive ought to 
be done to us in the like cases, in reference to the good 
of the universe. 

, Q. What is gratitude ? 
A. Gratitude is a complacency and sympathetic re- 
gard exercised towards those who have done us good 
offices or been the intentional causes of any good to 
us, and a promptness in remunerating them therefor. 
In other words, gratitude is, speculatively, sl strong 
sense of obligation prompting us to perform certain ac- 
tions by way of repayment for benefits received from 
others : actively, it is the performing of those actions 
according to our ability. 

Q. What is patriotism ? 

A. Patriotism is the principle of philanthropy di- 
rected to that community or body of men which Wje 



388 

have chosen for our country on account of their adopts 
ed government being adapted to promote the true weal 
of the species at large ; and the practice of certain ac- 
tions for the effectuating of purposes calculated to sup- 
port it, which we from the same principle wish all 
ranks of mankind to acquiesce in and subserve. 
Q. What is charity ? 

A. Charity is relieving the distressed and desti- 
tute, by supplying them with the necessaries and com- 
forts of life ; and also exercising candor and sympathy 
in our thoughts and discourse of those who appear in a 
bad light. 

Q. What is meekness ? 

A. Meekness is forbearance of revenge, forgiveness 
of injuries, and also clemency in inflicting condign 
pain. 

Q. What are the private virtues ? 

A. The private virtues are temperance, continence, 
wleanliness, industry, frugality, fortitude, and patience. 

Q What is temperance ? 

A. Temperance is habitually circumscribing those 
gratifications of the natural appetites, hunger and 
thirst, necessary to sustain our being, to such a com- 
pass as consists with the due temperament and healthy 
action of all parts of the animal frame. 

Q. What is continence? 

A. An abstaining from all irregular and immode- 
rate indulgences of venereal pleasures which are de- 
structive of health and peace ; and is by another word 
called chastity. 

Q. What is cleanliness ? 

A. The preserving of one's person, clothes, furni- 
ture, and dwelling dear from all unnecessary foul- 
ness, dirt, and filth, which gradually tend to engender 



389 

disease. This is necessary for health. Show is some- 
times mistaken for this;— as wearing a fine neat coat 
that is tainted with contagious effluvia rather than a 
ragged one ; and scouring of floors at the approach of 
holidays. 

Q. What is industry ? 

A. Industry is a cheerful, assiduous, and active at- 
tendance upon the performance of our duties or what- 
ever is appropriate to execute our purposes. 

Q. What is frugality? 

A. Frugality is a habitual saving from waste what- 
ever things, coming within our controul, are capable 
of a valuable appropriation in reasonable purposes; and 
is opposed to prodigality. 

Q. What is fortitude? 

A. Fortitude is a persevering in any actions for a 
desired end, in defiance of the danger of any pain or 
inconvenience that lie in the way to it. 

Q. What is patience ? 

A. Patience is an unruffled continuance, by a judi- 
cious and conscientious perpension, in any course or 
condition in spite of present pain, privation, or diffi- 
culty, that discommodes it. 

Q. In what way does the practice of virtue contri* 
bute to increase our happiness? 

A. By making us the exciting objects of complacen* 
cy and benevolence in others : whereby, by recom- 
mending ourselves to mutual approbation, we remove 
all suspicion and apprehensions of moral evil. 

Q. What are reward and punishment ? 

A. The consequences of actions, as they affect the 

agents. As pain that follows bad or vicious actions; 

and pleasure that follows good or virtuous actions. 

Rewards and punishments are of two kinds : necessa- 

83* 



390 

ry and instituted. Of the first kind are those conse- 
quences our actions inevitably draw upon us from the 
natural constitution and course of things according to 
the universal law, — such as remorse, dread, suspicion, 
resentment of others, &c. that follow as the necessary 
effects of injuring and wronging our fellow creatures; 
and self-approbation, complacency, and tranquillity, 
that follow the exercises of justice, hospitality, chari- 
ty, and meekness. Instituted rewards and punish- 
ments are such as men have contrived to follow cer- 
tain actions as the arbitrary consequents of them, 
which are brought about by the direction of voluntary 
power and choice in individuals who have superior in- 
fluence and efficiency; — as the cutting off of a man's 
ears for stealing a sheep ; or giving a man a piece of 
silver for killing a crow, 

Q. Who were the greatest preachers of ethics that 
have appeared in the world , that are recordod in the 
history extant ? 

A. Confucius, Epictetus, Socrates, Seneca, and Je- 
sus Christ. 

Q. In what chiefly consists the excellence of Jesus 
Christ's preaching? 

A. In its universality, and its levelling all manner 
of monopoly and pride. 

Q. Wfiat particular discourse of Jesus Christ's con- 
tains the viost of his moral maxims plainly expressed ? 

A. His sermon on the mount. 

Q. What is the most sublime and benignant precept 
that he delivered ? 

That which is called the golden rule: "Whatso- 
ever )e would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
so to them " 

Q. What was the cause of his speaking cabalisti- 
cally ? 



39 i 

A. The opposition of the Jewish government to his 
designs ; the barbarity and jealousy of the leaders in it 

Q. Why do men, since his time, tabor to obscure the 
tenor of his doctrine, and make it supernatural instead 
of making it plain ? 

A. For the same reason that the Jews sought to kill 
him. 







1 



ERRATA. 

Page 22, line 19, " fcadifction," read radication. 
G3, line 28, « all" read at alt. 
98, line 21, " inconsiderable,*' read inconsiriitrate. 
117, line 12, " their," read these. 
119, line 6 from bottom, <c the," read this. 
126, line 8 from bottom, " particular," reed practical. 
153, line 9 from bottom, li envolve," read evolve. 
143, line 19, dele " and." 

164, line 3 from bottom, " herofore," read hercfor. 
361, line 13, " to," read of. 
381, line 8, " unaUainableness," read its un&ttfun&leuc 




3fl« 



It having been incident to the process of the fore- 
going discourse to use several words in some varietj 
of sense, and to apply some words not in common 
usage precisely as they are applied in these instances ; 
I shall faithfully set down the following list of those 
which I have used in various or peculiar senses, and 
of the particular places where I have so used them. 



Advance, page 20, 181, to serve to execute; to help 
forward. 

Advance, 187, to bring forward, to develope* 

Advance, 144, to hold forth, bring to view. 

Advance, 184, to proceed, to progress. 

Accomplish, 13, 32, 187, to endow, to qualify. 

Accomplished, 168, 185, gifted, endowed, qualified. 

Accomplishment, 2, 60, 180, 183, 184, 189, 193, 197, 
207, 211,216,243,253, qualification, acquired 
excellence. 

Accomplish 137, 287, 325, 345, to execute, bring to 
effect. 

Accomplishment, 7,32, 126, 129, 169, 286, execution, 
and completion of effect. 

Capacity, 23, 30 5 55, 67, 209, 251, 257, province of ef- 
ficiency. 

Capacity, 330, compass of representative power. 

In all other places, this word is used to signify ex- 
tent of power, active or passive. 

Nerval, 22, consisting of nerve. 
Outset, 42, 79, a setting out in any business, a begin- 
ning. 
Scrupulosity, 40, fear of acting- 



394 

Scruplosity, page 67, conscientious care. 

Compass, 337, same as point of the compass. 

Susceptive, 98, 101, 181, 254, capable or incident to 
be admitted, (distinct from susceptible, and corre- 
lative to it;) likewise in every other instance* 

Humanity, 136, 166, 181, human nature. 

Urgency, 201, press of need or importance. 

Accelerate, 2ci8, to hasten the approach to. 

Acceleration, 234, promotion and insurance. 

Bias, 295, bent, propension. 

Climax, 324, as climacteric. 

Pursuit, 294, 325, 357 the thing pursued, object, end. 

Appetency, 287, fitness and aptness to receive what is 
required in support of organic parts. 

Concourse, 2f 2, casual assemblage and conspiring to- 
gether towards one event. 

Recession is used generally for recess ; a retiring 
from, or being retired from ; ceasing, and being ab- 
sented. 

Stock, when confronted with offspring; invariably 
means parent. 

Reversion I have constantly used to signify the total 
changing of a thing, either for its opposite, or for some- 
thing that is incompatible with its existence. 

Apprehension, 389, expectation with dread. In all 
other places, it means the power applied, of taking 
cognizance of any object, by sense or intuition. 



